Across the English-speaking world, university lecturers face continuing problems of foreign students who struggle to cope with the academic demands of the language.
Critics in Britain, the US and Australia complain that foreign students are being allowed to enrol without adequate preparation simply because they bring much-needed revenue to cash-strapped institutions.
When Bob Birrell, a Monash University sociologist in Melbourne, reported last year on a study he had undertaken into the low English standards of overseas students, he was roundly attacked by the federal government and university chiefs.
Alarmed bureaucrats told him the publicity surrounding his report had attracted the attention of the world's media and damaged the reputation of Australian universities.
The alarm was understandable. After all, nearly 400,000 foreigners are enrolled in Australian education programmes on and offshore - up from a mere 5000 in 1986 - and they contribute an estimated $12 billion a year to the national economy. The money they pay in tuition fees represents the universities' largest source of private income.
In the study, Professor Birrell analysed English test results compiled by the Australian Immigration Department. Since 2004 the department has required foreign students graduating from Australian universities who want to stay on as permanent residents to take an English test.
He found that more than a third of the students granted permanent residency did not have sufficient command of the language to justify university admission, let alone earn a degree.