Pak-origin student group head says some Oz universities are dumb

Melbourne, Mar.9 (ANI): A Pakistan-origin head of an international students group has described the standard of higher education at several Australian universities as very poor.

Council of International Students Australia president Arfa Noor told an education conference here that some Australian university courses are like being "back in Grade 2".

The Herald Sun quoted the Melbourne Institute of Technology student, as saying: "I don't mean to be harsh or anything but universities need to make sure that they are good enough to attract a very intelligent student."

The Pakistani business student was addressing over 100 academics at the Universities Australia conference.

She added: "You do hear sometimes from students who come from very good institutes back home, who work a lot, and they come into university and they say it feels like they're back in grade 2 because the things that they are being taught at a master level ... I covered at a postgraduate level."

About 550,000 international students study in Australia each semester and last year contributed 13.9 billion dollars to the economy.

The Melbourne Institute of Technology student said her organization had complaints some tutors could barely speak English, class sizes were too big, and lecturers simply stood and read from slides.

"If you're from a country, especially from the Asian region, where education is very competitive ... you would have a certain level of expectations, and a lot of students are disappointed by the quality of education," she said.

Noor said students came to Australia for the experience, not just a degree, and she had loved her three years here. (ANI)