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It’s a bitter lesson for international students, mainly Indians, studying at the Central Queensland University (CQU) in Melbourne, Australia. Hundreds of them took to the streets last month to protest against University authorities treating them like “cash cows.”
The allegations are that CQU “intentionally fails them” to make extra money. The tuition fee for each subject costs about Rs 75,900, which has to be paid again for the subsequent year.
“I scored 24 out of 30 in assignments and 7 out of 70 in exam. Do I need to say anything more? Even if we consider that I am an unusual case, can hundreds of students fail in a similar manner?” asks Suman, one of those affected.
University authorities however find nothing alarming about the fact that nearly half of the 375 students enrolled in its Issues in Management Accounting (ACCT20053) course flunked the summer semester exam. “We teach the same course material with consistency to all our students. If some students are not working hard to meet the high academic standards of the university, there is very little we can do about it,” says CQU spokesman Mike Donahue.
It’s an argument that cuts no ice with students. A 48-hour-long hunger strike by the students led Victorian Minister for Education Services Jacinta Allan to order a full audit of the CQU’s “shop front” campus in Melbourne.
