Education Quality and Conservation Biology

Abstract

In a recent public address at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, Professor Geoffrey Bolton argued that the quality of Australian university education was at risk because of an increased reliance on fee income from overseas students. He felt that faculties could be pressured to relax standards in order to maximize the pass rates of fee-paying students and thereby gain greater income for universities at the cost of cheapening the academic value of degrees. Of course, this argument was not meant to belittle the educational value of a diversity of cultural backgrounds within classes nor to imply any lack of application on the part of fee-paying students. Rather, it raised the very legitimate concern that the declining financial fortunes of Australian universities were encouraging many institutions to seek actively for fee-paying students and that growing reliance on fee income could compromise academic independence. Correspondents to the local newspaper echoed his concerns, which appear to be widespread in the university system.