Last year regulator TEQSA conducted a compliance assessment of Murdoch U’s international admissions 

“During the course of the assessment, the university self-identified a number of areas that would benefit from improved document management, record keeping and other processes which we have implemented. Our analysis found there was no systemic misapplication of admissions criteria, however, there were some specific cases identified and we immediately implemented remedial changes,” VC Eeva Leinonen states, (CMM October 8).

Murdoch U academics Graeme Hocking and Duncan Farrow, who went public in 2019 with their concerns over international admissions, wonder why the university “self-identified” and remediated issues when TEQSA got involved, given “university management had received multiple warnings from both internal and external sources well before the TEQSA investigation.”

“It is difficult to understand how ‘inconsistent application of … admission practices’ can result in the ‘admission of some international students (in 2018) who were ill-equipped to progress through their course of study,’” they say.

“Our experience was that there were a significant number of such ill-equipped students. It would seem that either the “admissions practices” were not applied or were inadequate.”

And they point to the impact of what occurred, “it is very disappointing that university management is yet to acknowledge, let alone apologise for, the negative consequences of decisions, on the welfare of students (and staff) affected.