Delivered by Mr Luke Sheehy, Universities Australia Chief Executive Officer
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Thank you for that warm welcome.
And thank you to the National Press Club for this opportunity.
I’d like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people on whose land we meet today.
And I pay my respects to their elders past and present.
I’d also like to acknowledge some people in the room:
- parliamentarians
- chancellors
- vice-chancellors
- senior public servants
- industry leaders, and
- special guests, friends and family.
It’s an absolute privilege to be here in my capacity as CEO of Universities Australia.
I’ve been in this role a little over a year now.
In many ways it still feels new, but I am by no means new to this wonderful sector.
I’ve had the pleasure of working in and around universities for more than two decades.
In this time, I’ve seen first-hand the power of education.
The way it transforms lives.
How it lifts people out of adversity and into opportunity, opening the door to a bigger, brighter future.
In addition to seeing it, I’ve experienced it.
I’ll never forget my time studying.
I first graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Melbourne in 2002.
That experience truly changed my life – in ways I could have never imagined.
I learnt about people and the world.
I was challenged and I was exposed to new and different perspectives.
But I didn’t stop there.
I found myself later at RMIT, Monash and ANU.
My own Mum, who is here in the room today, was not afforded the same opportunity as me.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, the daughter of a postman, she was told university wasn’t for her.
She wouldn’t have been the only one.
Instead, Mum was sent to St Vincent’s to undertake nursing training.
But she had aspiration for me, and she made sure her experience wasn’t mine.
And that’s how I became the first member of my immediate family to get a degree.
My Mum did eventually attend university, but not until much later in life.
She did post-graduate nursing and finished her career helping others to become nurses.
Today, it is my aspiration for all Australians to have the opportunity that I did to attend university.
But this is more than a personal aspiration of mine.
Or at least, it must be.
The need to open the door to university for more Australians has never been greater.
New targets show we need to educate a million more domestic students each year by 2050.
That’s 1.8 million students a year – more than double the number currently studying at university.
That’s what our economy demands and it’s what our future prosperity depends on.
As such, we must view this task as a critical national imperative, not simply an educational priority.
There is too much at stake not to.
Right now, we are in a period of great economic, technological and societal change.
The push towards a net zero economy is happening at pace.
New technologies, like artificial intelligence, are reshaping us.
And geopolitical shifts are changing our way of life.
This all creates both opportunities and challenges.
Opportunities we must embrace and challenges we must overcome to succeed as a nation.
So, what do Australia’s universities have to do with this task?
The short answer is everything.
Australia’s universities educate the skilled people our economy needs in greater supply.
People to guide the transition to clean energy.
People to navigate rapid technological change.
People to calm conflict.
People to care for sick and ageing Australians.
People to teach and shape future generations.
People to design new infrastructure for a growing population.
People to provide essential services to all Australians – like paying pensions and protecting us online.
And people to help drive productivity and economic growth.
Our future depends on these people – perhaps more so than our politicians sometimes acknowledge.
This is concerning, particularly with everything in front of us to navigate.
That’s not to say that the skills challenge Australia faces is lost on our public officials.
I don’t think that for a moment.
Fee-free TAFE and programs to increase apprenticeships are worthy initiatives.
Vocational education and the jobs that flow from it are vital to our economy and to our future.
But our universities must receive equal attention and equal support.
I don’t think this is necessarily the case right now.
In the years ahead, more jobs will require more skills – skills taught at our universities.
The government’s projections show that around half of all new jobs created in the coming years will require a university degree.
This means we need to recognise that universities are an essential ingredient in our nation’s future.
It means putting universities at the centre of Australia’s response to the skills challenge.
There has been some reluctance to do this.
This is clear in the government and the opposition’s quasi anti-university rhetoric.
It’s also obvious in the underfunding of our teaching and research, by successive governments.
I’ll return to this topic later.
You have heard me say that universities are treated more as a political plaything than a policy priority.
They have been for some time.
Our Chair, Professor David Lloyd, stood on this stage not so long ago making the very same point.
We both called this out last year as we witnessed the politicisation of our international education sector.
At the time, I said no other sector is treated this way, especially not one that delivers as much for the nation.
Not mining.
Not agriculture.
Not tourism.
None of them.
International education is our nation’s biggest export outside of mining.
It’s an additive industry, not an extractive one.
It pays for essential services.
It supports 250,000 jobs.
It funds vital university research.
And critically – it subsidises the education of Australian students.
This means Australian taxpayers pay less.
That’s why it’s crazy to even think about curtailing it.
Let’s also not forget what international students add to our workforce and our communities.
They work in the hospitality, retail, tourism and health sectors while they study.
And they strengthen Australia’s cultural fabric and links to the outside world.
The Reserve Bank has warned that federal policies to limit international students put all of this at risk.
International education should be above politics.
Instead, we’re told that all of this is worth less than a few votes at the ballot box.
That’s a very bitter pill to swallow.
I spent a lot of last year travelling the country visiting our 39 members.
I saw first-hand the financial pain so many of them are in.
But it wasn’t just the sledgehammer effect of Ministerial Direction 107 hitting their bottom lines.
The long-tail of COVID-19 and years of underfunding was so obvious, particularly in regional communities.
The result: job losses, classrooms in desperate need of repair and course cancellations.
All this at a time when universities need to be growing to skill more Australians, not potentially contracting.
Our sector needs to be supported in this endeavour, not hindered.
Remember, we are being asked to educate a million more students each year by 2050.
This is not simply for the benefit of universities.
It is, as I’ve said, a critical national imperative to ensure our economy grows and Australia prospers.
Our own government tells us this target could add as much as $240 billion to the economy by 2050.
That’s equivalent to a more than $20,000 boost for Australian households.
I’ll say it again: Australian households would be more than $20,000 better off if we achieve this task.
That’s something every Australian can understand – a dividend worthy of bipartisan political support.
But if we are to realise this return, we must focus on good policy, not politics.
In a federal election year, it’s high time the major parties came to the table.
Regrettably, the summer reset our sector had hoped for has not materialised.
Labor’s legislation to limit international student commencements remains parked in the Senate.
The Coalition, meanwhile, is still threatening deeper cuts to foreign student numbers.
Vice-chancellor salaries and university governance are now in the political crosshairs.
And social cohesion issues continue to play out on campuses and in the wider community.
I’m not for a second suggesting that universities are above scrutiny.
Our sector is not perfect – far from it.
These are really important issues to work through, and we will continue to work through them.
Our responsibility to provide safe and respectful campuses is not something we shy away from.
It’s our duty, as educators and employers.
You cannot have a healthy democracy without a healthy university sector.
At the same time, we can’t lose sight of or put off the major policy discussions we need to have.
What exactly do we want our universities to do for our nation?
How are we going to build our sector for the future to deliver that outcome?
How do we fund student places to achieve the required uplift in participation to fuel our future economy?
How do we break down barriers to university for underrepresented groups?
How do we fund university research to drive innovation and Australia’s progress?
And how do we invest in the infrastructure needed to support expanded teaching and research activities?
Again, this is not an exercise in self-interest.
Universities matter to all of us.
Every Australian, in every corner of our country, benefits from what our universities do.
And right now, Australia needs more of what we do.
We need more skilled professionals educated at university.
The Technology Council of Australia wants 1.2 million people in tech jobs by 2030.
Engineers Australia expects a future shortfall of up to one hundred thousand engineers.
This year, according to the government, we’re already four thousand teachers short of where we need to be.
The government also estimates a shortage of one hundred and twenty three thousand nurses by 2030.
Equally important to our future is research, innovation and development.
Like educating skilled workers, Australia needs to lift its game to do more R&D.
The current picture is not so rosy.
A 13-year decline in investment in R&D has created a “national emergency”.
That’s the view of Robyn Denholm, who’s leading the government’s review of the R&D system.
She says an extra $25 billion a year is needed to simply bring Australia into line with its global peers.
It’s an eye-watering price tag, but it’s in our national interest to be inventing new products and generating original ideas.
Our communities, productivity and future economic growth depend on them, along with a skilled workforce.
So do the agendas that Labor and the Coalition are taking to the next federal election.
The major party platforms might offer different views on how to get there, but the end goals are the same.
Both want to build a stronger economy.
Deliver affordable and reliable energy.
Support strong and sustainable communities.
Deliver cheaper medicine and quality healthcare.
And most importantly, they don’t want any Australian left behind.
The reality is that none of these goals can be met without skilled workers and research.
That’s why the conversation must turn from politics to policy.
Our public institutions, like schools, are worthy of full and proper support.
We can’t help the Albanese government Build Australia’s Future without it.
Nor can we partner with a Dutton government to Get Australia Back on Track without its support.
But if we are to deliver for the next federal government, and future ones, we need to be match fit.
We have some work to do to get there.
Right now, our sector is not exactly a picture of financial health.
In 2022, 26 universities were in deficit – up from only three institutions in 2014.
Back then, in 2014, Australia’s universities collectively posted a 6.8 per cent operating surplus.
By 2022, this had deteriorated to a collective deficit of 3.6 per cent.
In this period, average Commonwealth funding for student places fell eight per cent.
The drop can be largely attributed to the much-maligned Job-ready Graduates Package, introduced by the Coalition at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
This change in policy altered fees for students and reduced funding to universities.
Today, we have nearly a billion dollars less for student places every year under this funding system.
That’s the equivalent of around 33,000 student places.
Let that sink in.
We are potentially educating 33,000 fewer students each year.
I’m not saying this is necessarily the case, but it is a worst-case scenario.
It’s epically self-defeating.
The rationale for change becomes even greater when you consider enrolment outcomes.
Job-ready Graduates sought to boost enrolments in areas of national priority.
It’s now cheaper to study teaching or health-related disciplines – two areas of workforce shortage.
Yet, the scheme has not turbocharged enrolments.
In 2023, after Job-ready Graduates, there were fewer students studying teaching and nursing than in 2020.
Australia, of course, has a chronic shortage of both.
The Job-ready Graduates Package has done nothing to help this.
We need more teachers.
And we need more nurses.
Our sub-optimal funding system is not helping to produce these workers to the extent we need.
I should take this opportunity to stress that the cost of degrees is set by the Commonwealth.
And I want to call on the next federal government to work with us as a priority to correct this madness and to set new rates.
Rates that are fair and affordable for Australian students, regardless of the degree.
Pocketing cheap wins here only comes at the expense of future generations and our national productivity.
The former Coalition government promised a review of Job-ready Graduates that never happened.
The Albanese government then deferred the problem, making it a matter for the Accord.
The Accord’s now done, and the jury is in.
Job-ready Graduates has failed.
Yet, we’re still waiting for change.
I welcome the Coalition’s commitment today to honouring its promise to review Job-ready Graduates.
But this is too important to kick down the road.
I have heard the argument that the price of acting is too great.
Surely, the cost of not acting is even greater.
Remember how much Australian households stand to benefit from a fully skilled workforce by 2050?
They’ll be more than $20,000 better off.
And our economy will be $240 billion larger.
Job-ready Graduates has not gotten anywhere near achieving its stated intent.
The data shows this.
It needs to go, and it needs to go now.
I want to thank members of the crossbench who I know are advocating for the student funding system to be reformed.
Your support is so very welcomed.
Not to focus entirely on what we don’t need, let’s consider what we do need.
Educating a million extra students each year by 2050 is no small undertaking.
If we are to fulfil this aspiration for the nation, we need to consider how and where they will be taught.
Online teaching and technology will have a role to play.
But it’s naïve to think that universities won’t require more classrooms and laboratories.
In fact, we will require significantly more of both as our sector expands.
Universities have rarely built such facilities without support, nor have they been expected to.
The Education Investment Fund, which was ostensibly introduced by former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello, existed for this very purpose – to help build campus infrastructure.
That is, until 2019 when the Coalition and Labor teamed up to close it down.
This bipartisan raid on the Education Investment Fund stripped universities and TAFE of nearly $4 billion in dedicated infrastructure funding.
Nothing has replaced it.
I have already said investment in infrastructure on campuses is down.
Our analysis shows real capital expenditure dropped around 40 per cent between 2019 and 2022 alone.
This reflects the parlous financial position our sector is in.
A position driven by years of underfunding, COVID-19 and international student policy chaos.
How are universities supposed to meet Australia’s future skills needs without additional facilities?
The Education Investment Fund helped build laboratories to fight obesity and diabetes.
Facilities to drive the development of clean energy technology.
Classrooms to develop innovative engineering solutions to global problems.
And spaces to foster greater collaboration between universities and industry.
The list goes on.
Some teaching and research facilities on campuses today are no longer fit-for-purpose.
They are relics of the Menzies and Whitlam eras.
Our universities are home to some of Australia’s brightest minds.
People working to protect us from bushfires and to secure our food supply.
Sometimes in nothing more than a demountable.
I don’t think any Australian expects that.
And so, today, I am calling on both Labor and the Coalition to commit to re-establishing the Education Investment Fund.
To support the expansion of universities for the nation’s benefit.
To help deliver high-quality teaching and research to all students.
And to create construction jobs and drive economic growth.
The case for investment stacks up.
It’s a ready-made photo opportunity on the upcoming campaign trail.
A bipartisan commitment to funding teaching and research infrastructure is not a nice to have.
It’s an imperative.
We must apply the same focus and commitment to funding research in this country.
Government investment in university research has never been lower than it is right now.
The bigger picture is just as dire.
Australia’s overall investment in R&D sits at just 1.66 per cent of GDP.
That means we’re almost 40 per cent behind the OECD average of 2.73 per cent.
R&D is the engine room of Australia’s future.
It drives productivity, economic growth and progress.
Universities Australia has called for it to be at the centre of our country’s productivity agenda.
We will fall further behind in the global race to develop new ideas and products for as long as it’s not.
Why is it so important we undertake our own research?
Because it helps us seize new opportunities when they emerge.
It allows us to pivot as circumstances change.
And it positions us to tackle global challenges.
Our current circumstances put all of this at risk.
Australia’s funding slide and general indifference to R&D is fuelling a national emergency.
Governments typically rise to these occasions.
The next federal government’s moment awaits.
What’s needed is a sustained focus at the political level for Australia’s R&D system to thrive.
Australia recently ranked equal fifth highest in the world for trust in scientists.
If Australians trust them, why can’t our government?
It’s a question our own Industry and Science Minister pondered on this very stage a fortnight ago.
Minister Husic said Australians deserve a government that believes in science as much as they do.
Well, there are things we can do right now without waiting for Robyn Denholm and the expert panel to complete their review into Australia’s R&D system.
The next federal government can raise its investment in R&D, irrespective of what business does.
It can also lift the PhD stipend base rate from $33,000 to at least $36,000 – so our best and brightest aren’t living around the poverty line.
This is not an unreasonable ask when you consider that the average PhD candidate is 37 years old.
Many of these people have families and mortgages to consider while they work to advance our nation’s prosperity.
I know there is broad support from the crossbench for this increase.
These are quick wins that address the issues we’re all aware of.
By delaying action, we’re delaying our country’s progress and growth.
We can’t keep kicking the can down the road.
Our sector has, until now, used international student revenue to cover Commonwealth funding gaps.
But this can no longer be assured.
Something must give, or funding gaps in teaching and research risk becoming chasms.
It would be remiss of me to not acknowledge the government’s work so far in implementing some of the recommendations of the Universities Accord.
We are very supportive of the practical steps they’ve taken to support students.
Changes to HELP, paid placements and fee-free uni ready courses will make a real difference.
I want to thank Minister Clare for his commitment to this transformational piece of work.
And I want to call on the Coalition to provide certainty for our sector by backing the Accord.
Progress under Labor has been good, but we have a long way to go.
A lot of the heavy lifting still needs to be done.
My question today to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition is simple.
Where do universities sit on your list of national priorities?
If getting our universities match fit isn’t a first-order national priority, how are we going to deliver all of our other national priorities?
Promises on the campaign trail only get us so far.
It’s delivery that counts.
And, as I have said, universities are central to delivering the agendas of both major parties.
We’ve so far seen billions of dollars promised for better roads and more homes.
We can’t build better roads and more homes without engineers.
The Coalition has pledged to put nuclear at the centre of its energy plan for Australia.
We can’t transition to a clean energy future without scientists and other specialists.
Both major parties have committed billions of dollars to further strengthen Medicare.
We can’t deliver healthcare and keep Australians healthy without trained health professionals.
Labor’s Future Made in Australia simply isn’t possible without research and innovation.
And the Coalition’s guarantee of more defence spending means nothing without technical experts to deliver capabilities.
These are all nation-building endeavours.
I started my address by asking what do our universities have to do with building Australia’s future.
The answer is everything.
Whether you agree with that or not, I don’t think anyone would say that our universities are in any way supported to deliver what is asked of them.
Or what our nation needs of them.
Australia’s universities are needed to educate the smart, skilled people required to make good on almost every promise our major parties make.
The next federal government, and future ones, can’t build a better, stronger future for all Australians without them.
That means they can’t do it without us – universities – the essential ingredient in Australia’s future.
Our Chair, Professor Lloyd, stood here last year and called for good policy, not politics.
Our future, both as a sector and as a nation, depends on it.
I spoke earlier about aspiration.
Let me return to that theme as I finish.
Today, 80 per cent of young girls say they aspire to a career that requires a university degree.
One in four want a job as a doctor, nurse or other health professional.
We have come a long way since the 1960s, Mum.
My aspiration is that these young women have the opportunity my Mum didn’t when she was their age.
They have a big role to play in shaping our country’s future.
But right now, their futures are in the hands of policy and decision makers.
Please don’t let them down.
Thank you.
