international education
campusreview.com.au
Cutting corners
International student association
blasts Four Corners coverage.
Phil Honeywood interviewed by Wade Zaglas
F
our Corners is breaching the ABC’s
editorial guidelines relating to impartial
and accurate reporting, according to
the CEO of the International Education
Association of Australia.
In an interview with Campus Review,
Phil Honeywood said Four Corners’ ‘Cash
Cows’ program, which focused on foreign
fee-paying students, was the third negative
story on the topic in as many years.
“On each occasion, they’ve attacked the
international education sector. It’s been
very one-sided,” Honeywood said.
“On this occasion, Margaret Gardner was
fortunate enough to be the spokesperson
for the sector, but any attempt to reach
out to others was dismissed as they had
their story.”
Honeywood said English language
requirements were legitimately waived by
some universities because international
students often received instruction in
English when completing secondary
8
school or university studies in their home
countries. He was upset by an interview
involving two female Chinese students,
saying it appeared to be done to trip them
up on their English.
Although Honeywood took issue with
much of the program, he said immersing
international students in local culture and
customs was a legitimate issue, but it is
a complicated one and universities were
doing their best to address it.
Honeywood was also annoyed that the
program didn’t highlight the “soft power” of
the international student sector, with many
graduates returning to their countries and
embarking on successful careers in a wide
range of fields.
He also disagreed with the suggestion
that many foreign fee-paying students
were using university study for a “migration
outcome”, citing evidence that the
overwhelming majority return to their
own countries.
Campus Review spoke with Honeywood
to find out more.
CR: What annoyed or disappointed you
most about the Four Corners program?
PH: This is the third such Four Corners
program in as many years, and according
to the ABC charter, the ABC in its many
guises is supposed to adhere to balanced
coverage and reporting. Nothing could be
further from the truth with Four Corners.
[This last program] was yet another
attack on international education and this
incredible industry that’s just been driving
Australia’s future success in our region now
for many years.
Are there legitimate reasons any
universities should be waiving English
language requirements, seeing as the
program suggested it could subject
international students to, say, academic
failure or social and cultural isolation?
There are many universities around the
world, including in some of our key
students’ source countries – such as
China and India – that teach secondary
school programs and their undergraduate
programs entirely in the English language.
So there are many legitimate cases
where overseas, offshore universities are
sending their students who are entirely
competent in the English language.
I’m particularly upset with the Four
Corners program over its interview with
the two Chinese female students. The
only reason for the interview seemed
to be to try and trip them up on their
conversational English, and the two girls
did an outstanding job giving it, standing in
a crowd of people and trying to take on the
reporters’ questions.
I think we have to understand,
particularly given that most Australians
don’t speak a second language and have
never attempted to understand what it is
like to come from a language other than
an English-speaking background, that
just because somebody can’t articulate
themselves that well doesn’t mean that
they’re not fluent or close to fluent in
English as their second language.
So, there are legitimate reasons as to why
a university can waive the English language
requirements. In the case of one university
particularly that was identified, I think,