Over here and underachieving

A professor at the University of Buckingham has said that universities are too eager to admit lucrative, international fee-paying foreign students at the expense of British students who may be of equal or greater talent. Universities UK responded by saying they applied "rigorous" checks on standards.

The truth is that many universities in Britain have been brought to their knees by underfunding, and have no choice but to unquestioningly accept foreign candidates who now make up 60 per cent of all higher degree students. When even the most prestigious universities in Britain can't prevent their lecturing staff going on strike almost every year, how can they afford to turn down foreign students who provide £1.5bn in fees annually?

The effect on campuses across the country has been a tide of foreign students, often from Asia,

many of whom can barely communicate in English. From personal experience at SOAS (a top 10 institution according to the 2009 Good University Guide) I remember Japanese BA students who found their courses so startlingly impossible that they ended up living recluse-like in their rooms, phones unplugged, doors locked. At lesser institutions lecturers complain of having to lower standards to accommodate uncomprehending students and even of having to ignore cases of blatant plagiarism.

Professor Geoffrey Alderman, who made the accusations which started the debate, told The First Post that the dumbing-down of higher education currently affects even the most empirical areas of study: "In my view it affects the sciences and medicine as well as humanities and social sciences." The applied arts are not immune either. Witness the decline in quality of work