Post-COVID Australian universities - Post-COVID Australian universities - The need for a new teaching and research vision

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man

Australian universities relied heavily on overseas student fees to strengthen their international research standing, but COVID-19 severely disrupted this funding model. The document argues a new teaching and research vision is required, oriented toward making Australian industry more self-reliant. It examines how pre-pandemic overseas enrolment incentives shaped university priorities, the scale of the post-reform challenge, and the likely policy and funding direction needed from government and universities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The overseas student focus

The Chinese market

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Post-COVID Australian universities The need for a new teaching and research vision Bob Birrell The Australian Population Research Institute Australian universities have used the revenue from overseas student fees to enhance their international research standing. COVID-19 has undermined this business model. A new strategy is required, based on the universities’ contribution to making Australian industry more self-reliant. This outcome will require a national industry policy, such as has been successfully pursued in Israel. Australia’s universities will need to adjust their research activities in order to contribute to this end. The Australian government will have to provide the funds and direction. The universities too, need to embrace this vision. Keywords: COVID-19, overseas students, university teaching and research Introduction Pre-COVID, Australian universities had flourished despite very limited growth in Australian government funding. They had done so by expanding their overseas student enrolments. Now, in the post-COVID setting, most of the funding from this source has gone and is unlikely to return to 2019 levels for several years. Universities are appealing to the Australian Government for additional funding that will cover the likely shortfall. They are doing so in a context in which the Government has decided to implement major higher education reforms. These involve greater focus on job relevant teaching and research that addresses Australian industry needs. This is what university leaders claim they have been doing. However, in the ominous words of the Minister for Education, Dan Tehan: ‘Our reforms are being implemented to support universities to strengthen their focus on domestic students and strengthen the mutually beneficial relationship with business and government’ (Tehan, 2020). The challenges of this new situation are immense, since in order to promote overseas student enrolments Australia’s universities prioritised quite contrary objectives. This particularly applies to the Group of Eight (Go8) universities. They massively increased their enrolment of overseas students and, partly to attract these students, focused their research effort on work adding to the global stock of knowledge in the hard sciences. As for domestic teaching it has become a second order priority, subordinate to the research effort. This opinion piece assesses the scale of the financial and reform challenge. The overseas student focus Australian universities have long been engaged in a competition to expand their research effort. Research output has been regarded as the key to their overall prestige, but Commonwealth government funding has been limited. One option, the deregulation of domestic fees, which would have augmented the revenue of the more prestigious universities, has been denied. The Abbott Government presented legislation to implement this deregulation in its 2014-15 budget. However, the legislation was rejected in the Senate. The Abbott Government, however, like the preceding Gillard Labor Government, wanted to promote the overseas vol. 62, no. 2, 2020 Post-COVID Australian universities Bob Birrell 105 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W student industry, both as a source of funds to finance research free from taxpayer reliance and to promote the export performance of the overseas student industry. In the case of the Labor Government, prior to losing office in late 2013, it had taken action to rectify some of the excesses of the industry in the years up to 2010. It introduced reforms in 2010 and 2011, mainly involving higher English language entry requirements and increasing the funds overseas students were required to show they could access prior to taking up their enrolment. These initiatives resulted in a sharp decline in the number of overseas student enrolments in universities at the time. This i

FAQs

Why did Australian universities rely on overseas student fees before COVID-19?

They used the revenue from overseas student enrolments to expand research and enhance international research standing, despite limited growth in domestic government funding.

What did COVID-19 change about the university funding model?

Most funding from overseas student fees declined, making it unlikely to return to 2019 levels for several years and undermining the previous business model.

What role does the document say the Australian government must play?

It must provide both the funds and the direction needed to implement a new national teaching and research vision aligned with industry needs.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man