Bernard Lane | January 14, 2009
AUSTRALIA'S misguided trade in selling accounting degrees to migrants seeking permanent residency visas should be tightened up yet again and locals should be trained to fill severe shortages in the profession, says Monash University researcher Bob Birrell.
Dr Birrell, whose earlier work on the visas-for-degrees industry has inspired sharp debate and partial reform, will release this week new, more complete figures showing that more than a third of overseas students who secured visas as Australian-trained accountants had worryingly low English language skills.
"I regard the 2006-07 data as the best indication yet of the standards of Australian universities ... they're nowhere near the standards required by the profession," Dr Birrell told the HES.
In a paper to be published by People and Place journal, he and co-author Ernest Healy use updated figures and a new breakdown of nationality and occupation to show that accountancy as an easy route to permanent residence is especially attractive to the weaker English speakers among mainland Chinese students.
On the English language test known as IELTS, 45 per cent of mainland Chinese given visas as accountants did not manage a score of six (see tables, page 26). The percentage for mainland Chinese awarded visas across all university disciplines was 37 per cent while the figure for all nationalities given visas as accountants was 38 per cent.
Dr Birrell argues that even an IELTS score of six is not good enough for genuine university study while professions that take communication seriously demand a minimum score of seven, a standard adopted by large accounting firms such as KPMG.
Poor English is commonly cited by employers when asked why so few overseas graduates accepted as skilled migrants manage to secure jobs as accountants at a time of chronic shortages.
"The (former overseas) students who have struggled in the boom years are almost certainly going to go to the back of the queue as the economy slows," DrBirrell said.
"(Universities) are going to come under pressure from the students who are looking for permanent residency - that they can actually achieve this result from their heavy investment of time and money."
Dr Birrell pointed to a "wilful neglect" of domestic training of accountants and cited Curtin University of Technology as a dramatic example of an imbalance whereby overseas students greatly outnumbered locals (see tables).
He hoped the Bradley review would lead to more local opportunities in the medium term but urged the federal Government to complete the reform of the visas-for-degrees market started in September 2007 and revisited last December.
Little improvement would be found in the 2007-08 figures given the "very long pipeline" of former overseas students in the system. He said the 2007 and 2008 rule changes meant many overseas students pursuing the accountancy route to permanent residency would take up the soft option of a new professional year, the Skilled Migrants Internship Program, because it did not stipulate any English language requirement.
"What happens if people finish their professional year and (get a visa but) but still don't have level seven (in IELTS), which is quite likely?" he said.
But Sheena Frenkel of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, one of the professional bodies involved in design of the new internship program, said: "I think by the end of 12 months (they) will be competent in business English."
She said there were eight accredited providers of the program, which costs about $12,000 for 44 weeks, and more were expected to enter the market.
Beverley Jackling, associate professor of accounting at RMIT University, an expert on international students who chairs a newly created faculty of education for the National Institute of Accountants, said it would be interesting to see how the cost of the program compared with the cost of intensive language courses.
If former overseas students can attain an IELTS score of seven they would not need to pursue the internship program as a path to permanent residency.
"(The program) has only been running since last year so we have no figures, but my sense is more (former overseas students) may go for the English courses," Dr Jackling said.
Partly as a response to employer dissatisfaction, professional body CPA Australia is aiming to start online English courses to boost the language and communications skills of accountants.
CPA's general manager of member knowledge, Tony Gleeson, told the HES the organisation was negotiating with one of the world's leading online language schools "to provide interactive English language programs that not only improve people's English but also their communication skills".
Meanwhile, about half of Australia's universities are offering - or planning - English language testing for overseas students after they enrol, according to Alex Barthel of the Association for Academic Language and Learning.
A pilot study at the University of Queensland showed a significant majority of graduating students had IELTS scores above the 6.5 entry standard.
Curtin's deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Jane Den Hollander said more than 7000 of the university's new students had availed themselves of a pilot diagnostic tool to assess their academic English proficiency last year.
She said Curtin was considering the UQ initiative, given the "huge kudos" students with an IELTS of seven would have with employers.
Additional reporting: Jill Rowbotham, Guy Healy, Andrew Trounson
People and Place journal: http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/
