On a Sunday afternoon in Melbourne, the domed reading room of the State Library resounds with the whispers of hundreds of overseas students swotting for their end-of-year exams. They confer in English as well as a range of mostly southeast Asian languages and together are testament to Australia's success in opening its higher education sector to international markets.
Yet looks - or whispers - can be deceiving. While the government crows about this year's record number of overseas students - 172,000 at last count, up 12% on last year - fears have been raised in recent weeks that many overseas students do not have adequate English for the courses they undertake.
Last month the Economics Society of Australia expressed grave doubts about the quality of economics graduates, both in terms of academic achievement and in their ability to communicate in English. The society's secretary, Professor Peter Abelson, said: "I wouldn't single out English language competence as the only factor affecting international students' progress, but it is a key issue. How can you teach if you have to stop mid-sentence to explain to a student what 'evidence' means?"
Economics and business-related courses are extremely popular with overseas students and in many cases have been expanded specifically to cater to this market. They are good money-spinners for universities, but Abelson is worried that students are being admitted to courses they simply cannot cope with. "I'm not expert in the language standards the students have to achieve to enrol, but they are somewhat loose," says Abelson. "More independent testing of students is needed."
These concerns have prompted him to write to the heads of economics departments around the country asking for suggestions on how to address the problems. The Economics Society has raised the idea of additional external testing of economics students as a way of substantiating the worth of their degree qualifications.
As a teacher of economics himself, Abelson has seen the problem first-hand: "When I recently told one of my second-year classes that certain economic definitions were 'arbitrary' and 'subjective', many of my students were lost. It's not just a problem of literal definition - they have to be familiar with the concepts themselves before the discussion can proceed."
Abelson believes universities need a more focused approach to giving ESL students more control over their English: "Many students need some sort of foundation course covering things like essay writing, and introducing them to the language of key academic concepts - words such as 'democracy', 'voting' or 'federal'."
Abelson asked his university's linguistics department to design a multiple-choice test for his students, to grade them according to five categories. The lowest three grades identified students who "would have considerable difficulty understanding course content and have a serious likelihood of failure", "were very likely to fail the course [making it] questionable whether they should be at university with their current language level", or who "should be advised not to enrol in further courses until their English improves".
Of his 300 students, half of whom were overseas students, 37% fell into these lowest categories. "That represents well over half the international students," says Abelson.
Such criticisms come at a worrying time for the Australian government. It has just released an ambitious policy statement, "Engaging the world through education", outlining its vision for the next decade. It notes that the number of overseas students in Australia has more than doubled since 1994 and that "Australia's engagement in international education could grow by a factor of four from current levels over the next decade".
These rosy predictions were followed at the end of October by education agreements signed with India and China. The Chinese deal, which set up a framework for mutual recognition of higher education qualifications, could see Chinese demand for Australian education grow from 20,000 places currently to as many as 205,000 places by 2025, according to a "growth scenario" model developed by IDP Education Australia in conjunction with the Centre for International Economics.
IDP, a university-owned company that markets Australian tertiary education overseas, also released figures for a "quality-shock scenario" in which Australia's share of the international market would decline from a current 10% to just 1.5% in 2025. This scenario was based on assumptions that included "concerns over quality such that professional bodies no longer recognise Australian qualifications".
But if low English language competence does lower standards in tertiary courses, many would point the finger not at the government, but at the institutions themselves.
Sue Blundell, executive director of English Australia, comments: "Visas specify the language levels required for different types of study in Australia. Ielts level six is generally required for tertiary study, but each university sets its own levels - some set higher levels for some courses such as law."