Doubts over student qualifications

Korean students Christina Huh and Ben Baek were forced to pay for a worthless qualification from a school for international students. Photo / Natalie Slade

Christina Huh sounds like a model student. Her report card says she has passed every project on her design course and is full of enthusiastic teacher comments such as "showed great imagination and creativity".

Her boyfriend, Ben Baek, has also passed everything, according to his report, which praises his "good intuitive (sic)" and determination.

The Korean couple have certificates from Tasman International Academies showing they passed the course and identically worded reference letters vouching for their ability and good character.

But Huh, aged 27, and Baek, 29, did not do the course at Tasman, a school for international students in Auckland's Queen St. They failed the design course at another school, API Institute of Education, which collapsed in a cheating scandal in December 2009.

When Tasman picked up the course from API, it agreed to take on Huh, Baek and other students who had failed for a $1000 fee.

Huh and Baek didn't attend classes but used the school's computers for a few afternoons to make changes to their failed projects as suggested by Tasman tutor Louise Brosnan, who had joined from API.

After one session for Huh and about five sessions for Baek, the school awarded them each a Diploma in Design and Print Production, a so-called level 5 qualification equivalent to the first year of a university degree.

Their agent said they needed more documentation for a job search visa, so they went back about a week later and received reference letters and report cards.

The form letters dated July 30 said Huh and Baek were Tasman students who had completed their studies at the school "in plenty of time for the course completion date 23rd July 2010".

The report cards contained glowing personal comments and pass marks for the six projects they had originally failed at API.

Tasman principal Dene Collison said the comments were genuine because Brosnan knew Huh and Baek from API, even though she joined the school in September and did not teach their class.

"Louise had worked with those students at API. She knew those students. She had every right to make that comment because she had a history with those students."

But Employers & Manufacturers Association advisory services manager David Lowe said an employer would not regard the report cards as accurate summaries of the students' achievements. "You don't start giving out people's academic records from an organisation that [they] didn't come from."

Lowe said the other problem was the report disguised the fact that Huh and Baek had been failing before they went to Tasman. "You'd think it was a clean pass and it's not."

The couple's former tutor at API, Simon Barnett, said the work passed by Tasman also failed to meet course standards - a claim strongly denied by Collison. Barnett said both students still did not understand the principles of magazine layout and made some simple technical errors which any employer would spot.

Barnett said he was concerned that two other students with less ability than Huh and Baek also passed the $1000 remedial sessions and that another group of seven students - some of whom were failing projects at API - had since passed at Tasman.

The Weekend Herald showed Huh and Baek's work to Bruce Whitford, programme manager at Raffles College of Design and Commerce. Whitford has taught the diploma since 2002 and has written design courses from level 3 to 7 (equivalent to a degree).

He said both looked like talented students but there were serious mistakes in their portfolios that a teacher would have to fail, notably incorrect print specifications and magazine layouts that included poor layout and typography and spelling mistakes on the cover.

"They're definitely level 5 students but some of the individual pieces I would not pass for technical reasons and the fact that at that level they should be able to do those things."

You don't start giving out people's academic records from an organisation that [they] didn't come from.David Lowe, Employers & Manufacturers Association school could produce a report card with comments on work done at API. "How did a person do that who didn't actually teach them? You can't do it."

Given more time and effort, he said, Huh and Baek would reach the required standard. "There's not too much wrong but there's enough wrong not to be given a qualification without further study."

Collison said Whitford's opinion was irrelevant because Tasman ran its own Adobe-based local course, which was approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) but did not have to conform to national standards.

"We do not go to NZQA for moderation. We get our work moderated by industry."

Asked how the school could pass the work with basic errors, he said: "I'm not an expert in this field. However I also have total faith in Louise and no student gets a qualification from us unless they have proven that they have the ability to do that ... I certainly haven't had that response from industry."

Brosnan said she had passed the work because she honestly thought it was up to the required industry standard. She had not used the assessment sheet that set out the criteria for passing or failing students because she did not think it was necessary.

"If I did wrong then absolutely I apologise and I did not realise ... but at the time I genuinely thought: 'Okay, I really like [this work].'

"I didn't teach these students because they were in another class [at API] but when they came to me, I went through their records. If I mistook any information from those folders, it wasn't intentional.

"I don't want anyone to think that I would pass them for the sake of passing them because I would never do that. Never."

She said she had no teaching experience before working at API and Tasman but had a BA (Hons) in visual communication in Ireland and had worked in advertising and printing.

Collison said NZQA directed Huh and Baek to Tasman to complete their qualifications as they had already done 80-90 per cent of the work at API. They were supposed to do the work at API but the school closed before that could happen.

He said the couple might have struggled to find jobs because of the economic climate, the fact that they were older (most students are in their early 20s) and above all their poor English.

"With their English ability I would have questioned them coming into the course because I don't believe their English ability was good enough to do the course, personally."

Asked why in that case he was willing to pass them, he replied: "We only assessed them, we never had them in the classroom. Louise never taught them. Their English language ability has only come up to me from the discussions I've had with them today. That's the first time I've had any in-depth discussions with them."

Collison said all seven students passed by Tasman on the later course taken over from API had gone into jobs, overseas or on to further study. "Not one of those students is on the dole. Not one of those students has not been able to gain fulltime employment."

He said NZQA had no problem with Tasman, which had a very high reputation in the industry. "NZQA doesn't see us as a threat school in any way, shape or form. So if you're thinking NZQA will come and investigate us over this you'll find that doesn't work because NZQA is very supportive of everything we've done."

NZQA's deputy chief executive (quality assurance), Tim Fowler, said the authority would investigate the report cards and reference letters.

He said Tasman was entitled to charge a $1000 fee to re-evaluate the students' work and the assessment was carried out by a qualified person.

Asked if NZQA had confidence in the school, Mr Fowler said an April 2010 review was confident in Tasman's educational performance and self-assessment.

Tasman had not been under investigation for these issues but had recently been under investigation on a completely separate matter involving quality issues. He could not say more until the investigation was complete.

Collison said last night that Fowler was referring to a review by NZQA of many schools with international students, rather than a specific investigation into his school.

AUT graphic design head Peter Gilderdale said he was not familiar with the detailed requirements of the course but agreed with Collison that not all the blame for Baek and Huh's failure to find jobs could be laid with the qualifications they received from Tasman.

The two students' portfolios had definite weaknesses - he described the magazine work done by Baek and passed by Tasman as "pretty awful" - but the overall standard was fairly typical of one-year courses at this level.

Gilderdale said the students' biggest problem was their poor English, which was clear from spelling and grammar mistakes in their portfolios and application letters.