Aspiring business people and lawyers are taught how to work with China, but our future politicians, policymakers and journalists do not always receive the same practical instruction.
Australian universities have long been a site of protest. Today’s students join this legacy of activists who helped shape higher education and the Australian cultural landscape.
Diplomacy and national security rely on expertise in foreign languages and cultures. Australia and New Zealand need to address the looming deficit in university foreign language courses.
Universities can be hostile, overwhelming and unwelcoming places for many First Nations Peoples working in academia. More needs to be done to ensure culturally safe workplaces.
New research has found that Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students are more likely to be sexually harassed in a university context than any other students.
Universities must meaningfully acknowledge they are sited on unceded First Nations land and Indigenous culture should be recognised in campus design. These steps are vital for reconciliation.
World-leading university campus developments overseas call into question plans for CBD-based campuses in Australia. They might be good for CBD development, but what about the universities themselves?
Researchers will struggle to meet universities’ expectations of engagement beyond academia until this work is better recognised as part of their duties.
With 13 universities in the top 200 in the new aggregated ranking system known as ARTU, Australia ranks fourth in the world and is part of a rising new order in the global higher education sector.
A collapse in revenue and a lack of government support have led to university workforces being decimated to cut costs. This presents a number of longer-term risks for universities and the nation.
The campaign for ‘free speech on campus’ mimics US and UK tactics of using a manufactured crisis to further the goal of increasing conservative political influence in universities.
The Australian government has not been good to international students since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But compared to the US, UK and Canada, we haven’t lost our competitive edge.
Australia is being very explicit in response to concerns about China at the moment, increasingly prepared to put aside the imperatives of diplomacy when necessary.