The head of Queensland's largest university has responded to reports corruption is rife in Australia's international student sector, saying it doesn't happen at his school.
University of Queensland vice-chancellor Peter Høj says a Four Corners report alleging major universities engaged corrupt education agents who were falsifying the academic records of prospective international students to ensure acceptance into Australian universities "certainly doesn't relate to UQ".
The program exposed soft-marking, mass-cheating and the bribery of academics as a commonplace occurrence in Australia's higher education sector.
It reinforced concerns Australia's booming international student market was contributing to a decline in academic standards through the routine acceptance of students with sub-par English.
The ABC found a number of Chinese education agents who represented the University of Queensland and leading universities in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra were willing to accept forged academic transcripts, with the network of collusion extending into the universities' internal processes.
The investigation found many students were arriving at Australian universities with scores of 4.5 on the International English Language Testing System - an international standardised test of English language proficiency - well below the test's recommended minimum score of 7 for university entry.
Speaking to 612 ABC Brisbane, Professor Høj said UQ's 11,500 international students made up almost a quarter of its cohort and brought in more than $300 million a year.
He admitted the university used "some of those agencies" but said it double-checked credentials with the China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Centre based in the Chinese education ministry.
"We're very confident that students who want to get into Australian universities and who try to forge their way into it they certainly don't turn up at UQ," he said, adding dealing with the agents was necessary to be competitive in the international market.
The vice-chancellor also rejected comments made by University of Sydney sessional lecturer Zena O'Connor that there was a "culture of leniency" towards international students in the tertiary system.
UQ academic Professor Paul Frijters, who is embroiled in a bitter fight with the university over his treatment after releasing controversial research, told Four Corners of his concerns
"We've got to pass the vast majority of our students no matter what their level is, no matter what their prior knowledge is, no matter how much or how little effort they put in," the economist said.
But Professor Høj said none of the university's senior academics involved in quality control "recognised the claims as true".
"Professor Frijters would have to obviously have observed such behaviour to be able to make those public comments and I would have liked to think that he had actually made that known to the university's academic board," he said.
Professor Høj said there was an "enormous amount of wonderful international students" and it was important not to tar them all with the same brush.
-With Lisa Visentin
