An influential MP has said that the Government must take seriously the fraud of foreign students with poor English language skills graduating with postgraduate qualifications in the UK.
Phil Willis, Lib Dem MP for Harrogate and Karesborough and Chair of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee, warned of unease at the way standards were policed.
Mr Willis' comments come a few days after a university lecturer blew the whistle on her institution's approach to recruiting postgraduates who lack even basic English skills.
The anonymous female academic, who works in a science department in a well known UK university, told how she'd had to resort to drawing pictures to communicate with some postgraduates because their English was so poor.
Hundreds of people emailed the BBC to corroborate what the whistleblower had said. Several of the email correspondents claimed that their institutions were happy to turn a blind eye to overseas postgraduates with poor language skills, because of their high tuition fees.
Concern was also expressed that some overseas students resorted to plagiarism to overcome their poor level of written English. Institutions are reluctant to penalise these students, because they recognise that such cutting and pasting may be acceptable in different cultures.
Mr Willis said: "The government must take this issue seriously.
"The quality of our higher education product - with several of our universities in the top 100 universities in the world - is dependent on the quality of research and the quality of the students doing the research, and that must not be jeopardised. "
Phil Willis, Lib Dem MP for Harrogate and Karesborough and Chair of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee, warned of unease at the way standards were policed.
Mr Willis' comments come a few days after a university lecturer blew the whistle on her institution's approach to recruiting postgraduates who lack even basic English skills.
The anonymous female academic, who works in a science department in a well known UK university, told how she'd had to resort to drawing pictures to communicate with some postgraduates because their English was so poor.
Hundreds of people emailed the BBC to corroborate what the whistleblower had said. Several of the email correspondents claimed that their institutions were happy to turn a blind eye to overseas postgraduates with poor language skills, because of their high tuition fees.
Concern was also expressed that some overseas students resorted to plagiarism to overcome their poor level of written English. Institutions are reluctant to penalise these students, because they recognise that such cutting and pasting may be acceptable in different cultures.
Mr Willis said: "The government must take this issue seriously.
"The quality of our higher education product - with several of our universities in the top 100 universities in the world - is dependent on the quality of research and the quality of the students doing the research, and that must not be jeopardised. "
"It is hugely disappointing that the academic cannot report this to his or her own university or to Hefce [England's funding body for higher education].
"It is critically important that where there is evidence of malpractice - or fraud, which is what this is - that it is teased out as quickly as possible."
The universities claim to have measures in place to ensure students have sufficient knowledge of English to cope with their studies.
The universities claim to have measures in place to ensure students have sufficient knowledge of English to cope with their studies.
