Academic Standards, Internationalisation, and the Discursive Construction of "The International Student"

The release in early 2001 of a study of Australian social science academics of the impact of commercialisation on academic freedom (Kayrooz, Kinnear &, 2001) led to sustained public debate over the issue of academic standards and the of higher education in Australia. This debate gave expression to disaffection amongst Australian academics with the pressures for increased commercialisation entrepreneurialism in their work. In this paper I use the tools provided the work of Michel Foucault to critically examine the terms of the debate as it was in the public arena. The purpose of this analysis is to explore the ways in which students were represented in the discourses of academic standards, and the of the alleged decline in academic standards with the internationalisation higher education, and in particular, with the presence of international students on campuses.