50% of Nursing Students Failed The Same Paper

There’s an interesting thread on the Trademe boards today, it’s concerning the ability of nursing students to pass tests set for them in New Zealand and the requirement for them to pay to re-sit those failed tests.

It caught our attention as it ties in with what student nurse Linda Tang said a while ago and it also adds further weight to the argument of a leading academic at Auckland University, Professor Manying Ip, that international students “are seen only as cash cows”.  Professor Ip said the value of international students are being equated by schools to getting a new IT room or a swimming pool, rather than any of the non-monetary benefits they bring.

If you are an international student planning to study in New Zealand you may find the following interesting too:

“How can 50% nursing students fail the same paper
and it not be a reflection on the lecturer and the institution? Our friend is a 3rd year nursing student at AUT and she tells me today that 50% of her class have failed a presentation paper for one of her subjects. She seems resolute and is planning to work really hard to cream the nest assessment point, which will enable her to then still pass the paper. I am a nurse with post grad quals and I read her presentation and it was fantastic and much more than what I think is realsitic from an undergraduate student. I recall our lecturers, and they were by no means perfect, offering to review our draft assignments and then offer constructive advice on what needed remedying. I was fortunate and was fairly good at assignments, so never utilised this option, but more than 1/2 of my class did so routinely. This is not on offer to my friend or her cohorts. They are pretty much cut adrift. It smacks of just give us your money, and for alot of these students who are non New Zealanders, we are talking alot of money, we wont support you, then fail you and you will have to pay again. It very much reminds me of the Asian student who took the Uni to court last year (ed. Linda Tang) after they failed her for her poor English, in her last semester of her 3rd year!! Whats up with that. I’m all for having students to meet preset English standards but these needs to be identified pre registration in year 1! These Unis are a blardy law unto themselves and it makes me ashamed and angry.”

“They fail people in their third year as they have then creamed three years of fees off them, all about bums on seats.(=money in the bank for the educational institution)

It certainly smacks of that, doesn’t it? I rememeber hearing that about 70% of nursing students never complete their degree. Not sure how you could validate that but I recall it being touted as being the highest percentage of any undergraduate programme and had been for years. And still is today, as I understand. So why is that? And what are the Unis doing about it? Are their lecturers so bad that they cant teach the students what they need to know? Are the entry standards too low? I think the issues are multi factorial for sure but certainly stories like I shared in post 1 leave a very bad taste in my mouth!

I had the same thing with a management paper, where everyone failed.
BUT, my dad was a lecturer in Business and Management and he had to fail students if their English was so bad that they couldn’t get anything across on paper. It’s all very well saying “but they have the skills” – if they are unable to communicate anything on paper, then they cannot fairly pass a course where a large componant is written work. That’s what academic IELTS results are for and that’s why some universities have a better reputation than others. It’s not fair on a limited entry course for someone who can’t do the assignments gets let in (without evidence of IELTS results) when another equally skilled student without these issues misses out.

think with those numbers of failing the same subject would have to fall on the lecturer and subject at hand. Obviously they never covered it properly or it wasnt presented so that the students unserstood it. Think theyre just trying to blame students but with that high percentage the real prob should be staring them in the face.

My friend was a lecturer at AUT and was told that a certain number of students HAD to get a pass mark, otherwise they would get less funding, so she had to pass people who were totally crap, or get fired. She quit.

So clearly if people are “totally crap” as you suggest, they should have been stopped at application time, dont you think? Very bad practice and one that would surely be open to legal challenge, to allow students who were clearly not capable of passing because of their English for example, to enrol and then fail them 2-3 years down the track for poor command of the English language.

Like i said, some tertiary institutions have a better reputation and that kind of thing is a criteria involved. Every year when they list the highest rated universities, entry criteria is a measurement of quality for that exact reason. I used to work at the Overseas Admissions office at Auck Uni and I had to do a lot of comparisons on overseas unis, so I could do the credits, and they base some of that stuff on the yearly reputation results.
So if a teritary institution does not insist on academic IELTS as a pre-requisite, or has a system like AUT did where a certain number of people HAVE to pass, then there is a bad association for that institute.

hmmmm are you sure that is correct? how would your friend know this?
All nursing programs have to be certified by the nursing council so all will be similar.
We need to have exceptional standards to produce good nursing grads. Some international students who struggle with English, need to be proactive and get the assistance they require – its not up to the UNi to get them up to standard

More here 

Also see our blog post -
“International Students as Customers“:- 18 June 2009

“We thought it would be good to look into the problems and expectations that international students have whilst studying in New Zealand, specifically at UNITEC.
I’ve dug up a document released in 2004 by the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) who promote the “development of higher education policy, practice and the study of teaching and learning”
The report talked about how the numbers of international students have increased dramatically in New Zealand – a three fold increase in the last eight years. With such a dramatic increase the challenge is to measure the legitimate needs and expectations of this group of students so that steps may be taken to meet, or exceed, them whilst still satisfying the needs of local students.
UNITEC didn’t meet student expectations
“The survey found a significant difference between students’ expectations of the service that an excellent tertiary institute should provide and the perception of services being provided at UNITEC….”
International students not getting value for money or adequate support
“….this study also confirms concerns of the international students with issues of assurance. The students in this study are not confident that they are getting value for money, or that the skills they are being taught will get them good results both academically and for future employment. They are also unsure of lecturers’ knowledge in their subject area and do not feel that an adequate range of support services are being offered to them. These are all issues that should concern the management at UNITEC… more

Today's posts - click here

Migrant Tales - Moved From Singapore For Better Life

 Singapore

Continuing in our series of Migrant Stories: first hand accounts of migrant life in New Zealand, taken from locations around the net.

Today's story is taken from Expatexposed, a self-help and support forum for migrants in New Zealand.

In this post the child of an ex-pat New Zealander tells of how the family left the relative safety of Singapore and relocated to the father's homeland in a fruitless attempt to give the three kids a "better education."

Within a month of the family's arrival in Auckland they were exposed to what was the start of a shocking degree of crime, including an armed robbery, burglary, bullying and mugging. The family was torn apart by their experiences in New Zealand:

"So, I found this site a couple of days ago, because after SIX YEARS of constant suckiness... It was getting to me. What's a girl to do?

I googled "Why does New Zealand suck?"

And here I am!! I am not alone! There are others! (No seriously, this is how I felt.)

I was about to post a link of this website to my Facebook profile in ecstasy, but then remembered all the Kiwis that I've got on there, that might find it highly offensive. Instead I secretly spread the word to a few people who I thought might enjoy this place too.... We all had a bit of a laugh. The kind that you have when things are so dire that you have to laugh at it. I especially enjoyed the "Don't Migrate to New Zealand if..." section. Sums it all up in a nutshell.

So anyway, here is my story... in as much of a nutshell as I can give.

I was raised mainly in Singapore originally. My dad is a Kiwi born in 1942 in Wellington, he moved to Singapore about 30 years ago where he met my mom, she's Malay.

So when I was 17, they decided to send me here to get 'a better education'... Well isn't that a joke now. Oh, they also bundled my sister along for the ride, she was 15 at the time.

So off we were on a plane to Auckland, to go to school in safe, super awesome New Zealand. We managed to find a measly small studio apartment on Anzac Ave at a place called The Cambridge.

Coming from Singapore, which as most of you probably know, is very clean, safe, relatively drug and crime free and wealthy... Well.

Within 1 month of being here, we saw a flasher, at a main road bus stop on Beach Road, in broad daylight. Sure, other people saw him but they just carried on like it was no big deal. We were in the Video Ezy on Quay St when there was an armed robbery. The cops took half an hour to even show up. Our laundry was stolen and tampered with by a community of transvestites that lived on the floor below. We were stalked by a creep, reported it to the police... And got a call 3 months later to say that the found the guy. And so it goes, and so it goes.

My parents are by no means rich. They thought sending me and my sister here would be a cheaper option than doing university in Singapore. I don't blame them for not knowing what it would be like. My poor dad was under the impression that it would be the same good old country he left 24 years ago.

After 1 year, my mom and my brother joined us here in Auckland. My dad was transferred to Sydney for work, so at least he was a bit closer.

As you can guess, it just got worse. Eventually my parents ended up buying a house, for some 'stability', in Avondale. The house was right at the end of a really bad street. Needless to say, that only made things even worse. The house got broken into more than once. My dad got mugged on his way home from work. My brother, age 9 at the time, was bullied by juvenile gangsters. My sister was pestered by them for cigarettes. Some people in the park tried to sell me a bottle of Johnny Walker at 9 in the morning!

My parents needed help financially, as cost of living was so high. Even something as basic as a doctor's visit is so expensive here! So my sister and I dropped out of University to get work.

So we all worked, and worked, and worked.

My parents absolutely couldn't take it, living here. My dad said that NZ has become a very mean-spirited place, and it makes him sad. His company offered to pay for the cost of migrating my family to Sydney. Well, of course they jumped at the chance. They asked if we wanted to go with them.

By that stage, we weren't sure if Sydney was going to be a huge improvement. We weren't sure what opportunities were available for us there. More relevantly, my sister and I both had plans to get back into school here and we were both in long term relationships with partners that were not able to relocate with us. So my parents and brother left, we ended up staying.

I have been in and out of the health system for major clinical depression in the last 3 years... And I was starting to think - what is wrong with me? Why can't I just be happy here? I really started to believe that there WAS something wrong with me for hating it so much.

Hey, if I won Lotto, I would leave tomorrow and never, ever come back. Ever. If only it were that simple.

But at least now I know I'm not alone! I am beginning to feel like my response is somewhat normal! *sigh*

Anyway this has been really hard, so please be kind, dear community of like-minded people. =)"

later

"Well it turns out that my parents are now back in Singapore! LOL

As for other students finding the same problem, that was mainly my experience when I was at AUT.

I met my partner there, he also came on the premise of a world class education, recognised universally, etc. and of course we were both equally disappointed and disillusioned by the time we had been here for a while.

I was actually glad to withdraw from my degree at AUT in Communications as I thought it was a huge waste of my time and money having them spend 6 months repeating the same thing over and over, after I had already learnt it within the first 2 weeks of it being taught.

We do have a bit of the same debate going on as others, about whether it is worthwhile to wait and get something to show for it!"

Please read other similar stories in our Migrant Tales section, this poster is not alone in their experience.

Also see other posts
International students "only seen as cash cows"
Crime collection
Armed Robberies collection

Do you have a migrant tale for us? leave it in the comment below.

Today's posts - click here

Srikanth Rayadurgam Disappearance - Indian High Commission Concerned

From Yahoo News

"The Indian High Commissioner to New Zealand is seeking a briefing from Auckland police over the disappearance of an Indian student.

Srikanth Rayadurgam, 23, disappeared on his way to class at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) 10 days ago.

His family have accused police of shifting resources off his case to the search for missing toddler Aisling Symes and questioned whether race was a factor.

Mr Rayadurgam's disappearance was being widely reported in India and had prompted the Indian High Commissioner to seek a one-on-one briefing with investigators, TVNZ reported tonight.

His family believe he may have been the victim of foul play."

Other news reports say that he may have been robbed - he was recorded on CCTV withdrawing $250 dollars from an ATM close to his college on Queen Street at 2.17pm 1 Oct, that was a couple of hours after he left home on his way to AUT. When his wallet was found the following morning on a cycle track on Curran Street a few kilometres away, it was empty except for $10 which could have been easily missed by someone rifling through it.

The rest of his belongings were found at Westhaven Marina and included a shoe without a lace, his wallet, cellphone, jacket and backpack. They were stuffed under a rock below the tide line His bank accounts and cellphone have not been used since he vanished.

Mr Rayadurgam, 23, was from Hyderabad and had graduated in hotel management from the Indian Institute of Culinary Arts in Begumpet, he arrived in New Zealand in February to take an advanced diploma course at AUT University, He was living with his sister R. Padma Priya, and brother-in-law Nagesh Babu, in Mt Albert, Auckland. He has no other family in New Zealand. His family have said that his disappearance is out of character.

Agastya Pesarya, President of the Indian Student Association said, “Our association has been trying the best to trace Srikanth. I have also written to Indian High Commission to look into this matter with immediate effect,” he said.

We are concerned too about his disappearance, it seems highly irregular, we fear the worst but are hoping he'll turn up safe. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.

For other posts about overseas student safety in NZ please see:

Google search "New Zealand portrays 'safe' image to attract Indians"

Indian students subjected to racial abuse in New Zealand

View Larger Map - Route from Westhaven marina to AUT

View Larger Map, his wallet was found on Curran Street, near the marina