I work at a university and used to be more student facing to the point where I was supporting masters student’s lab work. 90% were international because they pay a fortune for fees and the university lap them up. However, the standards were shocking.

If all of the students were lined up for me to decide who to hire for infinite places it would be 2 out of 50 students. In fact I would have outright failed a good 20 of them if it were up to me.

There was good, bad, and very bad. Some had never been in a lab before and it showed. And this was for a Chemistry masters. I’m talking clueless, unsafe working practices, messy, disorganised, limited knowledge of actual chemistry. Some had overinflated egos where they wouldn’t listen to technicians because ‘they knew better’. They did not. I dread to think of these people actually landing chemistry roles and being responsible for health and safety.

It actually really affected me how privileged these people were to be there, and how hard I’d had to work and save for my own masters. One girl failed every assignment throughout the year, her attendance was abysmal but was still allowed to do her project in July and then she didn’t show up 90% of the time. They couldn’t (or wouldn’t) kick her off the course even then, probably because she was international and brought loads of money in.

I honestly lost a lot of faith in the higher education system when working in that role.