Australia’s universities have been warned by new Education Minister Alan Tudge that it will be “very difficult” to get significant numbers of foreign students back on campus this year, amid fears the COVID-ravaged sector will lose up to $10bn from the closed international border.
In his first interview since Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s cabinet reshuffle in December, Mr Tudge also said he was determined to put Australian schools back on track after a horror year of lockdowns and online learning for students and parents.
Another priority would be finding new ways to commercialise university research.
Hopes of foreign students returning to university this semester have been dashed in recent weeks by national cabinet’s tightening of international arrival caps and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews – whose state’s biggest export is education – saying it was “frankly not possible” to get thousands of students into Australia.
Mr Tudge, previously the acting immigration minister and population, cities and urban infrastructure minister, told The Australian there would be significant challenges to revive the foreign student sector by year’s end.
“It’s going to be very difficult,” he said on Thursday. “Our priority is ensuring that Australians can get home and Australians are kept safe from the virus.
“Obviously we’ll keep a close eye on this week-by-week and month-by-month and at all times guided by the health advice.”
The education sector expects an $8bn loss in tertiary fees in semester one alone if no foreign students are allowed into Australia. That figure rises to $10bn if there are no international students this year. The student cohort contributes $40bn to the broader economy.
More than 12,000 jobs have already been lost on campuses and higher education experts predict 2021 will be worse than last year if international student fees cannot prop up university research and teaching.
Former Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven predicted in The Australian this month that the nation’s universities would crash out of the top world 100 tertiary rankings due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Mr Tudge said he hoped Australian research universities would hold their top 100 research ranks but made clear he wanted the higher education sector to also focus on training and teaching the nation’s youth.
“I hope that universities can stay in the top 100 this year,” he said. “That will in large part be driven by the research output, particularly from the half a dozen universities already there.
“But that is just one dimension of universities as well. Universities are also there to educate Australian students and I want to ensure they continue to do a good job.”
Mr Tudge is also keen to ensure the government is leading on ensuring school-age students have a better year than 2020.
Millions of children were forced to learn online for at least half of last year and in Victoria, Mr Tudge’s home state, school students spent months longer at home due to the second COVID-19 lockdown.
Mr Tudge said he was confident schools would be open during all of 2021. The closure of schools is a state responsibility.
“It is so critical for kids to be back as much as humanly possible at school this year,” he said. “Going into the new school year, I am concerned about the impacts of kids not being in school for much of last year due to COVID.
“I know the state and territories share this (concern), and together we need to ensure no kid is falling behind or indeed has fallen out of school because of this.”
Mr Tudge said he wanted to lead a post-COVID revival of school standards, partly by improving teacher training in universities. “According to the international standards, a 15 year-old has fallen behind by as much as a year compared to a 15 year-old 20 years ago,” he said.
“We’ve got a role clearly in the funding which we’re stepping up to, in the curriculum. But importantly in teacher training courses in universities. Teacher quality is one of the most important drivers of increased standards.”
Mr Tudge faces a myriad of challenges in the universities space, from increasing foreign interference to freedom of speech.
He said universities had more work to do to prevent foreign interference after revelations China had recruited more than 300 scientists and scholars – and perhaps as many as 600 – at Australian tertiary and government research institutions through its talent recruitment programs.
“There is definitely a need to do more on foreign interference in the university space,” he said.
“We’ve outlined foreign interference guidelines for the university sector and they’re working through that, but this is going to be an ongoing issue.”
Mr Tudge said he would continue pushing institutions to uphold free speech on campus, after Mr Morrison was told by a mining executive on his regional Queensland tour this week that mining students were being “heckled” at university.
“We’re very serious about freedom of speech on campus,” he said. “Many universities are also taking this seriously, but there is still work to do on this.”
Mr Tudge said he wanted to have a new model for commercialising university research by the end of the year to help turbocharge the economic recovery. Australian universities have long failed to keep up with US and European research success.
