Dickinson State U. Dismisses 5 Chinese Students, Citing Poor English Skills

January 26, 2012, 11:27 am

Dickinson State University has asked five Chinese students to leave after failing to demonstrate that they had adequate English skills to enroll in classes, reports The Dickinson Press, a local newspaper. The North Dakota university said that the students had scored lower than acceptable on the Test of English as a Foreign Language and that they could return home or transfer to another institution. University officials blamed a private company that facilitated the enrollment of the students for the situation. As the number of Chinese undergraduates has grown rapidly in recent years, they have presented American universities with a variety of language and cultural challenges.

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crunchycon

As the number of Chinese undergraduates has grown rapidly in recent years, they have presented American universities with a variety of language and cultural challenges.

Definitely.
barmak

“University officials blamed a private company that facilitated the enrollment of the students for the situation.”
You don’t say! Commissioned recruiters, I presume?
johnney1

Good. As a secondary school teacher and administrator who has worked with hundredss of international students preparing them for college entrance, I believe colleges have to hold the line as well as they can in this area. Even where market forces push schools to take a large number of international students, finding ways to require that English skills are at the level needed to enter the program is necessary. If colleges need a percentage of International students to fill beds and pay bills, then requiring students to complete a preliminary English preparation program which is not credited toward graduation credits, or some other alternative method of making sure students are ready before entering would be a good thing.
blesstayo

Why won’t Dickinson State U offer “English as a Second Language” to foreign students admitted like some institutions do?
blesstayo

Why won’t Dickinson State U offer “English as a Second Language” to foreign students admitted like some institutions do?
crunchycon

At many institutions, english language classes are “pre-university” and the students are not fully admitted. The english language classes, while housed on the university campus and peripherally part of it, are considered a separate institution.
kborchronicle

I am proud that the university did not take the students’ money and keep them there to work toward a degree they would most likely never attain. An institution where I was employed for a short time took $20,000 from 20 Taiwanese ESL master’s degree seeking students, kept them there a year (knowing they did not have the English language skills), and then told them two hours before the graduation ceremony that they would NOT be graduating! They sent many of them home without their degrees. Yes, this was also a commissioned recruiter in China who brought the students over and told the institution they could speak English. However, if the ESL teacher knew their English skills were not up to par and she would NOT grant them a degree, I would have rather seen her let them keep their $20K and sent them back home.
mtboots

I think this is shameful. With Skype and the like, there is no reason for these institutions not to personally interview and determine the language skills of the prospective students before they fork over a ton of money to the Shady Recruiting Company, Ltd or spend money on airline tickets, etc.
Aside from the money aspect, imagine the emotional blow.
No excuse. Period!
22275138

Yet another great example of why US colleges should be forbidden to work with overseas agents who work on commission. They put their commission ahead of the well being of their students. I wonder who the students will blame for this debacle … the university or the agent.
old nassau’67

Shoulda let the five stay. With their work and study ethic, and their skills in science and math, they probably would have higher GPA’s then many indigenes.
12052592

Solution: first make sure they throw all their legal immigration documents out the window before they cross the California border. We will educate them for free. No English required.
manoflamancha

This would add to the cost for tuition for everybody. Why should Americans pay now for the Chinese to take more of jobs in future?
janetc

Recruiting foreign students is BIG business. I hope the college is reimbursing the students for the money collected on tuition, fees etc. and also paying them back funds lost on travel expenses. The college in effect told the students, upon admitting them, that they were fine language wise and then apparently had no back up services in case the college assessment of the students’ application was flawed. Not admitting them in the first place was clearly the ethical thing to do. Students are people and their lives are unfairly impacted while the college pockets the money for the term.
wassall

Why in the world would Dickinson State admit these students before seeing the results of their TOEFL? Something is very strange here.
elle82

Do you know these students personally? I’m curious how you know that they have a strong work and study ethic and excel in science and math….
commserver

Why did Dickinson accept these students in the 1st place? I think that Dickinson had access to the academic records, including test scores.
awegweiser

Good idea, except there are many such foreign languages and Chinese is probably among the most difficult. To teach such courses would require several different teachers proficient in two or more.Besides as our beloved ex Senator Santorum said, people should not go to college
because they will be indoctrinated by Liberals and Leftists.