小孟站在悉尼市政厅门前的台阶上，手里挥舞着他的学位帽，而他的一些中国同学正忙着在他参加毕业典礼之前帮他拍些照片。

Standing on the steps of Sydney's town hall, Eddie Meng waves his mortar board as some of his fellow Chinese students take pictures of him before his graduation ceremony.

小孟来自上海，但已在澳大利亚度过三年时光，在中昆士兰大学(CQU)获得了信息科技硕士学位。

Mr Meng is from Shanghai, but he has spent three years in Australia completing a masters degree in information technology at Central Queensland University (CQU).

这个26岁的年轻人计划不久之后回上海，要么加入一家中国公司，要么自己创业。他表示："有了我在澳大利亚的经历，我甚至能去做些进出口方面的事情。"

The 26-year-old plans to return to Shanghai soon, either to join a Chinese company or start his own business. "With the experience I have just had in Australia, I might even go into some kind of import-export activity,'' he says.

近年来，到澳大利亚求学的留学生数量大幅增长，其中中国学生增长最快。2002年至2006年间，澳大利亚的留学生数量增长了近50%。去年，外国学生已经占到了澳大利亚学生总数的四分之一。

China has led a surge in the number of overseas students enrolled in Australian universities, which climbed almost 50 per cent between 2002 and 2006. Last year foreigners accounted for a quarter of the country's students.

但这一增速已经引发了人们的忧虑。人们担心一些大学是否已大幅降低了入学标准，以求抓住有利可图的留学生市场。

But that influx has sparked concerns about whether some universities have lowered admission standards excessively to tap into this lucrative pool of foreign students.

澳大利亚政府的数据显示，去年，在该国接受高等教育的留学生中，26%是中国学生。对小孟和其他人来说，澳大利亚提供了一个在英语环境中学习的机会，而且这是一个自由市场经济体，其出口越来越依赖于中国的需求。

Chinese students last year represented 26 per cent of foreigners in Australian higher education, according to government figures. For Mr Meng and others, Australia offers an opportunity to study in an English-speaking, free-market economy whose exports are increasingly dependent on Chinese demand.

澳大利亚政府还提供激励措施，鼓励海外学生申请永久居留权。目前，澳大利亚的失业率已经降到了30年来的最低点，而该国的移民评分系统也将目光锁定在拥有各类技能的学生身上，其中包括厨艺、会计等技能。

Canberra also offers incentives for overseas students to apply for permanent residence. Australia's points-based immigration system has targeted students acquiring skills ranging from cooking to accounting at a time when Australian unemployment has fallen to a three-decade low.

莫纳西大学(Monash University)教授鲍勃o波瑞尔(Bob Birrell)完成了一次针对海外学生的广泛调研。他指出："不太有名的大学已经挤进这个市场，争相推出为这些留学生定制的课程。"

Bob Birrell, a professor at Monash University who conducted an extensive study of overseas students, notes that "less prestigious universities have jumped into this market to put on customised courses tailored to these (foreign) students''.

对于以中国学生为主的留学生大规模流入，人们最担心的就是他们糟糕的英语语言技能。在波瑞尔教授的研究中，他发现，毕业后获得澳大利亚居留权的留学生中，有34%的人未能达到从事专业工作所必需的最低英语水平，其中中国学生有43%的人不合格。

The main worry sparked by the Chinese-led influx has been poor English-language skills. In his study, Prof Birrell found that 34 per cent of overseas students who graduated and got residency status in Australia did not achieve the minimum level of English required for professional activity, with 43 per cent of Chinese students falling short.

南澳大利亚大学(University of South Australia)管理学院高级讲师特莱希o布莱塔格(Tracey Bretag)说："要说外国学生降低了语言水平，并把剽窃等问题的责任怪罪在他们头上，这很容易。但既然你收了他们的钱，你就得给他们机会，让他们成功，充分挖掘他们的学术潜力。"

Tracey Bretag, senior lecturer at the school of management of the University of South Australia, says: "It is too easy to say foreign students are lowering the level and responsible for problems such as plagiarism. If you take their money, you must then give them a chance to succeed and achieve their full academic potential."

中昆士兰大学在1994年迎来了该校历史上的首批留学生，而目前该校2.4万名学生中，留学生占一半。该校设有一个学习技能部门，咨询顾问免费为单个学生或学生群体提供服务。但该校60名学生最近进行了为期两天的绝食罢课，抗议学校对他们待遇不公，导致其未能通过期末考试，被迫延长学期。

Having welcomed its first foreign students in 1994, CQU now takes half its 24,000 students from overseas. It has a learning skills unit, whose advisers work for free with students either individually or in groups. But 60 of its students recently staged a two-day hunger strike, complaining they were being forced to extend their studies after unfairly failing their final examination.

留学生对于澳大利亚十分重要，因为在留学生大量流入的同期，澳大利亚的大学出现了严重的资金不足。

Foreign students have become invaluable to Australia because their influx has coincided with a sharp funding shortfall for universities.

过去10年间，澳大利亚政府拨款占大学预算的比例已经从60%下降到40%，使得澳大利亚用于高等教育的公共支出在经合组织(OECD)国家中排名倒数第三，仅高于美国和日本。

Canberra's contribution to university budgets has dropped from 60 per cent to 40 per cent in the past decade, leaving Australia with the third-lowest public expenditure on tertiary education among OECD countries, behind the US and Japan.

本月，澳大利亚政府朝着改善资金供应状况的方向迈出了一步。政府承诺，将取消备受争议的对全自费国内学生的限制，并成立一个50亿澳元（合41亿美元）的捐赠基金，帮助大学改善基础设施，如科研设备。尽管大学对此表示欢迎，但专家表示，澳大利亚不太可能停止对小孟这样的留学生收费。包括学费，小孟在澳大利亚每年须花费约4万澳元。这笔钱基本来自他的家里，其余部分通过兼职工作解决。

This month the government took a step towards improving the funding situation by pledging to remove a contentious cap on full fee-paying domestic students and creating a A$5bn (US$4.1bn, €3bn, ￡2.1bn) endowment fund to help universities finance infrastructure such as research facilities. While the move was applauded by universities, pundits say it is unlikely to put an end to the quest for foreign students such as Mr Meng, whose stint in Australia cost him about A$40,000 a year, including fees. That money came mostly from his family, with the rest earned from part-time jobs.

从9月开始，澳大利亚政府将提高留学生申请居留权所需的最低英语水平。但墨尔本市长苏震西(John So)预计，这对中国学生来说不是问题，他们中将有越来越多的人像小孟一样，回到蓬勃发展的中国。苏震西当年离开香港到澳大利亚求学，后来在墨尔本开了一家餐厅。

From September, Canberra is set to raise the minimum English standards required for students to obtain residency. But John So, who left Hong Kong to study and then develop a restaurant business in Melourne, predicts this will not be an issue for Chinese students, who will increasingly follow Mr Meng and return to booming China.

目前正处于墨尔本市长第二任期内的苏震西表示："在我那个年代，如果你回到中国，机会非常有限。从很多方面而言，现在的情况已经发生了转变。"

Mr So, who is serving a second term as lord mayor of Melbourne, says: "In my time, the opportunities if you went back to China were very limited. The situation has become in many ways the reverse.''