Higher Education System: A Comparison of Australia and US

This article compares the higher education system of Australia and the US. It discusses the scandals and malpractices in both countries and their impact on students. It also highlights the advantages that wealthy students have in the admission process.

Topic 7-
Higher education System
Australian tertiary education system offers wide range of courses to study in Australia .
Thesecourses range fromscience to managementandaccounts , humanities , technology ,
andlegal and human sciences. These higher educational universitiesofAustraliarankedas the
best in the world in context of science, engineering technology , medicine, accounting and
finance . These universities are designed as per the British education system, there must be
standards defined for each and every step of education. Also there are other ways to
involve in preparatory methods and some otherresearch based courses
which starts more early from that of those AmericanFreshers.Everyone
knows that thereis very minimal level of knowledge requirement at early years offresh
courses and many of the courses can becompeted in three year period with international
research oriented standards to assess students performance and entire learning
outcome..However in context if US tertiary education system , it has been alleged that there
are massive interference by those whi doesn’t belong to educationsector . This sector has
flourished out as haven for investment fir many ofwealthyHollywoodactors and corporates .
For example, Loughlin,, allegedly forked out $500,000 to have both her daughters admitted
to University of Southern California as 'designated recruits' to the rowing teamwithout
rowing any girl in reality . Involvementof high profile individuals in the deep scams of
educationalsystem has started conversation kn every platform that also affect US
educationalsystem to a large extent. Involvement ofHollywoodcelebrityattract the attention of
every section of people towards the scamss HoweveAustralia is no stranger to scandal when
it comes to our tertiary education system.
In 2013, the University of Queensland was reviewed by the Crime and Misconduct
Commission (CMC) after the university offered a medicine scholarship to the daughter of
vice chancellor of the university, which is of the nature ofpublic funded scholarship.The
report has mention that the daughter of the vice chancellor was not eligible to admit in the
university as per the requirements of entrance test. Report also stated that those
studentsranked above the daughter of vice chancellor(VC) has not been given admission
letter till now.“No criminal charges were laid, but Greenfield and then deputy Vice-
Chancellor Michael Keniger stepped down from their roles following the report. New

South Wales and ACT university admissions are governed by the Universities Admission
Center, which distributes student's scores.A lot of people criticise
the ATAR system for being impersonal and coming down to numbers, a lot of those
criticisms are fair but our system is more resistant to interference than more discretionary
systems."
In other states, like Queensland, a similar system called OP (Overall Performance) is set in
place to ensure that students are accepted on merit and not influence. Queensland University
of Technology high ranking Professor Carol Dickenson says that the places which
has potential of malpractice or fraud are in special scrutiny by team
organised.
The problem is not in the application process but in the fact that some schools don’t even
have access to the support that their students need to apply and then to be successful in that
application. It won’t be an equal playing field until we can improve access to that support
across all schools and students in Australia. And the disadvantage gets replicated from
generation to generation. Claire Brown, national director of AVID at Victoria University
and a researcher in higher education, believes we are kidding ourselves if we don’t recognise
the advantages that children of wealth get, above and beyond the actual wealth. Those clubs
might not be as explicit as they are in the US, but they do as much damage. We need to give
the best people opportunities, not the wealthiest(VISENTEN, 2019).
Colleges and othercompaniesaredistancing themselves from the employes
alleged in the nationwide college admission scam, in what prosecutors have
labelled the largest such scandal in United States history.
News that celebrities were among the accused parents, including “Full House” actress Lori
Loughlinand “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman, created much buzz.Other
parents charged and who could afford the steep price included high net worth
individuals who are veterans in law , fashion, finance, industrial
manufacturing and other similar things .(Perry and Holt, 2018).It is alleged that a number of
athletes and parents are involved which spent thousands of dollars to ensure admission of
their children.It is unethical and a act of disgrace that anyone is trying to break law or bypass
regulations in order to put their children in stand of more advantage than that of others as
every children has equal right to get opportunity to be evaluated on the basis of merit while
applying to college for admission as stated by US Education Secretary recently (Smail,
2013). Interim president of university of Southern California already had issued statement

that there will be rejection of all the applications of admission and investigations on the
admissions of current students will be held on individual basis. Two employees have also
been fired already in addition to the charging of a parent in relation with the scandal. There
are allegations on the role of administrators of entrance examination that they have been
bribed to correct the wrong answer of some students. Some accused have already resigned
and in context of the parents of accused students, they are refraining from any comments on
this.It is being described as the biggest college admissions fraud scam ever prosecuted by US
federal authorities.
i. Test administrators allegedly took bribes to allow clients to cheat, including
correcting wrong test answers
ii. In some cases, the faces of children were Photoshopped onto images of athletes to
exaggerate athletic credentials
iii. Prosecutors have alleged thirty three parents and thirteen coaches so far, but more
could be charged.
How does the scheme work-
It depend pin bribing officials , fake candidates and modified or diffused phots which depicts
non athletic students as competitors to involve in the slots for offsprings of wealthy parents.
Some also used tactics that involved request from the parents that their children are
differently abled and to give some extra time to complete the test.Also parents are advised to
select the centres for test which are under control and allow cheating.They have been charged
upto 2.5 million dollars under the banner of educational charity.Test administers in these
centre also bribed to allow the specific clients to cheat and even to provide them to correct
their wrong answers In most of the cases involved children are unaware about the scam and
there are also cases where they voluntarily took part. Still no children has been charged for
the scam.(Winter, 2019).
If convicted for the scam the masterminds and accused parents can face upto 20 years of
prisonment. However, it has been given to universities to decide upon the students admitted
using fraudulent means. Many universities are willingly taking part in the investigations also.
Meanwhile in Australia, an reports by ABC TV’s Four Corners found that “Australia’s top
universities, including the highly renowned University of Sydney and the Australian
National University,have participated in unethical practice of getting engaged with agents
who are intended to modify the academic records of students in order to assure them about
their admissions . (Smail, 2013)

However the program is intended to expose the usual practice of soft marking, bribery and
collective cheating happening in the academics which are now a incident of commonplace
occurring in Australia tertiary education sector .This fact is emphasising on the concerns that
being a global preferable as a educational hub , Australia’s educational standards are
degrading due to such practices and regular entry of students with inadequate command over
English. .From paying others to take entrance exams to giving donations to secure spaces,
corruption is deeply embedded in university culture.The rich and privileged undoubtedly
have the upper hand as they can afford to hire editors to “help” their children with college
admissions essays, even if they don’t outright bribe college admissions officers or
recruiters(Young and Lawyers, 2016).
According to The Conversation,“it is well known fact they high network individuals give
priorities to high grades also and there is huge availability of institution which are intended to
prepare only for high grades in various tests. Getting help from these institutes does not count
as fraud but it surely put wealthy student a step further in the race with other children in the
class (Smail, 2013).In these cases, they aren’t overtly breaking the law like the ones caught up
in the recent scandal, but their money and privilege makes the admissions process much
easier for their kids compared to students who don’t have the money for basic tutoring, or
have someone read their draft of a college essay.In these cases of admission scams , ultimate
victims are those who have to bear the burden of misdeeds of their acquinatances.
Consequence if which can be mentioned as following-
 The kids pay the price- Unfortunately, the real victims are the kids. Not just the kids
who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who don’t get the same privileges,
but also the kids who got into college by unsavoury means.This is because the actions
of their parents, who engage in ‘helicopter parenting’, will most likely have a negative
impact on their lives. Some of these kids didn’t even know their parents were paying
bribes to help them get into college. As Olivia Jade, a popular vlogger, has openly
expressed how she didn’t even want to attend college but was pressured by her
parents to do so.
 Feeling of failure and low self esteem- lead to mental health problems such as
anxiety or depression. Or perhaps they end up paying others to take exams for them,
continuing the cycle. It is worth analysis that while expecting some few more extra
grades from our children in a particular evaluation process, we are not letting them
understand the basics of that topic and the need why that topic is there in the syllabus.

 Danger of paving Path for kid with money- It create apprehensions that kids grow
up thinking they can get anything they want as long as they have wealth and
status.When they enter the working world, they either continue riding the wave of
privilege, or find it difficult to assimilate in the adult world when they realise money
can’t buy everything like happiness, responsibility and integrity (Smail, 2013).
 For International students- problems could be even greater if they are forced to
study abroad or face pressures to transition to a new culture so different from their
own.The lengths some parents go to to make sure they receive a ‘Western’ education
could be detrimental on their mental health.We already see the repercussions of this
over-parenting in the current millennial generation, who face ‘burnout’ when they
find they cannot cope with normal adult responsibilities. It’s no wonder that mental
health has reached a crisis level among college students in many countries.
Hopefully, this corruption scandal will open up the eyes of parents who tend to get over-
involved in their kids’ lives. It’s a problem that’s seen all around the world, commonly know
as ‘tiger parenting’ in Asia (Queensland Government, 2019).
Parents Responsibilities-Parents should also remember that bringing their children in such
institutions where they don’t want to enrol or not interested for such kind of extracurriculars
will result in misrepresentation of the child, and they will find themselves in lives they didn’t
want in the first place. Communication between parent and child is important, ensuring
they’re on the same page when it comes to their academic goals and future ambitions.
Richard Weissbourd, who is serving as a senior lecturer in Harvard’s Graduate school
of education,, advises, “Ask your child, “Am I over-involved? Is it helpful or harmful to
you? How would you like me to be involved?”” (Learnmate, 2018)
Although corruption between elites to get their offspring into these universities are not new
but they should consider about the efficacy of this practice and the externalities of such
practices by wealthy individual (Fernando, 2018).
References
ABC News. (2019). Wealthy parents spent up to $9.2m to buy their kids'
way into college. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-
03-14/full-house-star-lori-loughlin-out-on-bail/10900276 [Accessed 24 May
2019].
Fruen, L. (2019). Chris Soules pays $2.5 MILLION to the family of man
killed in crash. [online] Mail Online. Available at:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7055363/Chris-Soules-parents-
pay-2-5-MILLION-family-man-killed-tractor-crash.html [Accessed 24 May
2019].
Perry, L. and Holt, L. (2018). Searching for the Songlines of
Aboriginal education and culture within Australian higher education. The
Australian Educational Researcher, 45(3), pp.343-361.
VISENTEN, S. (2019). ‘Corrupt agents’ found to falsify student papers.
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https://www.theherald.com.au/story/3024691/corrupt-agents-found-to-
falsify-student-papers/ [Accessed 24 May 2019].
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https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/tertiary-entrance/atar [Accessed 27
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13/cmc-tables-report-over-uq-nepotism-row/4956018 [Accessed 27 May
2019].
Smail, S. (2013). University of Queensland nepotism row: CMC tables
report to Parliament, recommends legislative action - ABC News
(Australian Broadcasting Corporation). [online] Mobile.abc.net.au.
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