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Perth’s Murdoch University and other universities have become heavily reliant on foreign student fees to bolster their incomes. 50 professors from the Australian Research Council’s Laureate Fellowship condemned the decision to take legal action against an associate professor from the university. Deeply concerned about the integrity of academic teaching, the professor complained on television that the university was not only enrolling international students whose English was inadequate but also allow them to graduate.

The national Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) program revealed that Universities across Australia enroll hundreds of thousands of foreign students simply as ‘cash cows’, however unprepared to undertake degree courses. Academics told ABC they have seen record numbers of academic misconduct cases and more and more international students struggling, some using phone apps to translate lectures. Following the ABC broadcast, the National Tertiary Education Union called for greater public accountability for universities in dealing with international students.

Australia has been gripped by a national debate over how to fund our university education. But perhaps there's a more important question: what is it worth? A Four Corners investigation has unearthed alarming new evidence of a decline in academic standards at institutions around the country. Lecturers and tutors are grappling with a tide of academic misconduct and pressure from faculty managers to pass weak students. Many say commercial imperatives are overtaking academic rigour.