@katliamom You provided the solution because the answer is really quite simple. The university (s) need to spend some money by hiring a person(s)/company in China to interview potential candidates.
I wonder if the Chinese government will step in at all… If it got to the point where the credentials of Chinese citizens (or anyone who attended a Chinese university) are just assumed to be fraudulent because of widespread cheating it would be terrible for the China’s economy as well as its reputation.
Americans cheat too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39820263
@elguapo1 – Brilliant solution. Personally interview literally thousands of Chinese and Indians who apply to every year. I’m sure the admission twits at MIT would be thrilled if you suggest it to them. 8-|
@katliamom It is either a problem or it isn’t, if it is then interviewing is the solution. Oxbridge finds the time and resources to interview every candidate they consider for admission, both domestic and foreign, both are 3x the size of MIT in terms of undergrads. Of the 1000’s who apply how many do MIT seriously consider 50-100??
The Chinese government does step in for other things…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/us/chinese-students-western-campuses-china-influence.html?_r=0
“Or the students just plan on cheating their way through the American school.”
It’s possible they think so, but if they think they can pull that off, they don’t have any idea what they’re getting into, especially in graduate programs. You have to speak to other investigators and your advisor. If your purchased papers don’t match your crummy speaking abilities, you’re exposed.
Interviewing sounds like a great idea. Maybe they would take less foreign students and open up seats for our own students.
There are currently over ONE MILLION FOREIGN STUDENTS IN US. Now consider this…
Few years ago (and for two years in a row) SAT scores by students in South Korea were cancelled, because students had answers to SAT questions.
Here is an article from Reuters titled ‘“Cartel-like” test prep companies in China have created a massive cheating problem for the SAT’
Anybody who lived in Asia, Middle East, Africa and few other parts of this globe KNOWs that in some societies cheating and bribes (for test scores, grades, etc) is acceptable. Those cultures are very different from ours. US universities close their eyes on this at the expense of US students. That is a real SHAME.
Trump University in China
(could it be the best solution? offers any degree in any field)
@elguapo1 – there’s rampant cheating on Skype interviews as well. There’s a whole Reddit thread devoted to it, and, if you dig deep enough, tips online on how to do it successfully. (Cheat, not interview.) The most common is having a different student do the interview for the applicant, or having a parent/teacher off screen giving the student answers. An article that was making the rounds on CC a while back included an anecdote from a college admissions person recalling a perfectly nice interview with a young woman from China. At one point, the interviewer saw something black moving a bit at the botton of the screen. She thought it was a cat, maybe. Only when the young woman being interviewed accidentally moved the screen did the interviewer realize that the black moving thing was, in fact, a human head resting on the interviewee’s lap. It was apparently the girls mother, whispering answers to her daughters during the interview 
It isn’t a new thing. After getting out of the service, I went to a small U for some grad school. 80% of the students were from one of two countries, one of these sets was cheating quite openly. Disillusioned, I quit grad school and went into industry where if you cheat you get sacked. Fast. I like this better.
There are already private companies filling this need by providing verification and interview services in Asia.
On a somewhat related note, several years ago I handled a case where the plaintiff was a Chinese immigrant who had a CDL and drove a truck. He didn’t speak any English and NYS doesn’t administer the test in any Chinese languages. I asked my investigator to look into it. While I was waiting for the results, a news story broke about a ring that was feeding learner permit test-takers the answers. They were giving the people a special jacket to wear which was equipped with a transmitter and a camera. The test-taker would take a photo of the test paper and send it to the criminals, who would give them the answers through the transmitter. I reported the plaintiff to the DMV but never found out if he was part of the ring. All I could think was how scary was it that these people are driving without knowing English or understanding the rules?
@katliamom Oxbridge interview in person, even from countires where English is the native tongue. You may get Skype interviews but it will be the exception rather than the rule.
There are companies whose function is to monitor quality control in international trade. If for example I buy a cargo of crude oil from Nigeria or a cargo of lamb from New Zealand, these firms make sure that the product meets specification at the point of export. These comapnies have a network of offices all over the world. It would not be difficult for universities from the Big 10, Ivy League, SEC etc to contract with these firms to varify potential students can speak English with a short interview in their home countires. Or, the universities could go on blind faith and accept the application at face value, cash the $60K+ tuition check and then find out they have a problem a few weeks into the new semester. Which scenario do you think should be done and which scenario do you think happens now?
As an aside, I suspect the problem does not arise with the likes of MIT, but more to do with those institutions who actively trawl the globe, particularly China, looking for tuition dollars.
So, there is a culture of corruption in US university management, to take money knowing there is likely to be a problem with the underlying application.
I get the feeling there’s been a willful ignorance among lots of administrators at universities that want/need the money that foreign students are willing to pay.
Interesting considering there were a series of cheating scandals within the US going back decades which not only extends to mainstream schools and colleges, but also the Federal Service Academies as shown through the 1951 cheating scandal at West Point which resulted in the expulsion of ~90 cadets including the son of the football coach or the USAFA cheating scandal of 1965 in which 105 cadets were expelled.
Worse, the cheating even extends to the active-duty officers as shown through the 2014 incident when 92 USAF Missileer officers were implicated in a cheating scandal for mandatory tests to ensure minimal technical proficiency necessary to fulfill their critical part of US national security:
And like those cadets, I sincerely hope the cheating international students in OP are expelled once they’re found guilty.
“So, there is a culture of corruption in US university management, to take money knowing there is likely to be a problem with the underlying application.”
For most national universities, this is not the case. Let me give you an example. These was a consortium created about 8 years ago called USPP that has Chinese students doing their freshman year in China and the remaining 3 years in the US. It was led by Northeastern U and a Chinese education company. Northeastern has been VERY active in recruiting Chinese students and wanted to take in all students from this consortium, but the Chinese company wanted to have more legitimacy and insisted the consortium to include another 6 or 7 universities, including Baylor, U of Utah, etc.
The problem was that the average student quality was bad (Chinese education company did not do a good job screening and Northeastern was responsible for the first year’s instruction in China but did not enhance student ability enough there). So Baylor, Utah and many others quickly fed up and left the consortium. This show you that “most” national universities do take student quality and whether they can do the work into consideration.
There are also economic and academic freedom factors to be noted for these quick exits. At Baylor and Utah, instruction is on average highly rigorous. An ill-prepared Chinese student can be put into probation in just 1 semester. Note there is a fixed cost of student acquisition fee that Baylor and Utah need to pay to the Chinese education company (not quite sure whether Northeastern gets a cut). If my memory serves correct, the fee per student is not far away from $10,000. So if the faculty cannot tolerate these students and they have a high degree of freedom in failing them, a university will not make money on these students. This is one of the reasons why Baylor and Utah left and did not want these students.
According to Northeastern’s website: http://www.northeastern.edu/uspp/, I believe Northeastern is still doing the USPP thing (but the odd thing is that they still list Baylor (I believe UVM also exited) as their partner although Baylor left at least 5 years ago!). Who can blame Northeastern? I think they figured out by having these “transfer” students, their stats would not enter and affect its’ US News and World Report ranking. For a school that publicly acknowledges its intention in gaming the ranking, this is probably the most comfortable way to have Chinese students and money.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/foreign-students-seen-cheating-more-than-domestic-ones-14651401
Public universities in the U.S. recorded 5.1 reports of alleged cheating for every 100 international students, versus one report per 100 domestic students, in a Wall Street Journal analysis