A study found many students copied phrases directly from the internet into their personal statement – a detailed note setting out their reasons for choosing a particular course.
In some cases, applicants said they were opting for one university because of its "global reputation" and "excellent teaching quality". The phrases were later found on the university’s website.
The disclosure comes amid a dramatic rise in the number of foreign students admitted to British universities.
The number of students from outside Europe taking higher degree courses, such as masters and doctorates, has soared more than eightfold since the mid-1990s. Many can be charged much higher fees than British counterparts.
But two years ago a whistleblower from one leading institution said postgraduate degrees were being awarded to students lacking the most basic language skills as cash-strapped universities seek to use them as a lucrative source of income.
The latest study by Surrey University looked at a random sample of 60 personal statements, submitted between 2005-06 and 2008-09, for postgraduate courses at one unnamed business school.
They were compared to material found on websites belonging to the business school, other universities and the British Council, Britain’s international cultural relations body.
All but three applicants were from abroad, with almost half being made by Chinese students.
The findings showed similarities between the language used in applicants’ personal statements and that found on websites.
One student said the university "enables students to develop their competencies for working in multinational and multicultural environments", while the business school's website also used the wording "multinational and multicultural environment".
Another student applying in 2005/6 cited the university’s “global reputation for both teaching and research in this sector”. The phrase matched a quotation from the course’s head of school.
One applicant described being “overwhelmed by the illustriousness and reputation of the [university’s] business school”, adding: “I believe the university...will offer excellent teaching resources and facilities to students”. The university’s website mentioned “excellent teaching resources and facilities”.
Dr Jane Hemsley-Brown, the report’s author, who is presenting the research at the British Educational Research Association’s annual conference at Warwick University this week, said: "Students in this study, from both cohorts, state that they are applying to a university because of reasons set out in the claims the advertisers make for that university and for a British education.
"So, therefore it appears that the advertising slogans and straplines become the reasons given for choice.
"We expected to find the applicants setting out individualised and personal reasons for choosing the university. What we got was the university's own admissions information quoted back at it."
--By Graeme Paton,02 Sep 2010