Danica De Giorgio:
India and Australia have a rich and shared history, underpinned by strong higher education and research links. This opens an opportunity to grow trade relationships with them through education, particularly post the COVID pandemic. In 2019, Indian students studying in Australia contributed more than $6.4 billion to our economy.

Joining me live from India is Universities Australia CEO Catriona Jackson. Catriona, thank you so much for joining us. You are in India at the moment, tell us about the work you’re doing over there.

Catriona Jackson:
I’m coming to you from Delhi, Danica, hello. It’s just a time of real opportunity to boost the already really strong and deep ties between India and Australia. The education system has played a really profound part in that. As you said, a very substantial economic contribution, but I think even more important than that is the person to person, student to student ties, scholars who’ve come to our country and really enriched it. It’s fascinating being here. India is one of the few countries in the world that’s recovered really, really smartly and really quickly from that hideous thing you don’t even want to mention, the pandemic, and there’s enormous opportunity here to both enrich our country, enrich Australia, but also enrich India, a really great democracy.

Danica De Giorgio:
We know that Australia has been closed for the last two years, so how can Australia now work with India to strengthen those ties in the sector?

Catriona Jackson:
There are so many ways, Danica. There’s a new free trade agreement, which is historic. India doesn’t sign these very often, some real advantages for us in all sorts of ways. I’m here with a group of CEOs this week, investigating those opportunities. At the moment there are an enormous number of Australians travelling to India and same the way back. We had the Indian Education Minister in Australia very recently, many very senior Indians are coming to Australia to have increasing conversations about really rocket fuelling the relationship and we can see all sorts of benefits. There are incredible ambitions in this country to educate their population. I don’t know if you know, and this number always sits me back in my seat, a million Indians turn 18 every month. That’s a million every single month. This Government is really, the Government here, is really determined to offer the kind of educational opportunity that those kids deserve and, as you can imagine, it’s an enormous challenge. They’re asking Australia to help, and we are absolutely here and ready to do so.

Danica De Giorgio:
They’re incredible figures that you just quoted just a moment ago there. I just want to touch on that point though, because we have been closed for the better part of two years. Has that at all had an impact on international students wanting to come to Australia and study? What is the feeling that you’re getting from being in India?

Catriona Jackson:
The feeling in India is that it’s made them even keener to get back to Australia and study. During that terrible period of COVID, especially for people in Delhi, we were talking to colleagues over here about how they were coping and the message we got was just they are really, really keen to get back on Australian shores to study. But also, incredibly keen after a period of real trauma for everyone – India had it really bad, especially here in Delhi – to just get on with their lives, to forge their way in the world, to make the best of themselves they possibly can and make the best contribution to their nation. But of course, many of these students who are really bright, really ambitious, really hard working come to Australia, and get a world class education in Australia. Some of them work for a while in Australia, sometimes they end up making their home in Australia, but most of them come back here or come back to another country and become incredible global citizens with a real affection and love and knowledge of Australia and often make business ties and enrich both nations.

Danica De Giorgio:
What is the visa process like at the moment for students wanting to come to Australia? How confident are you that this will be ironed out ahead of the university term beginning again next year?

Catriona Jackson:
This has been a matter of discussion while we’ve been here. I think it’s fair to say that the Government gets real brownie points for this. They’ve worked really hard to clear those backlogs. The backlogs were a problem. We had lots of students who are saying “I want to come back, but I just can’t get a visa, please help me”. Clare O’Neil made it really clear in the Jobs and Skills Summit that enough was enough. They’ve contributed additional money to clearing those visas and the news I’m getting, as recently as last night from a vice-chancellor, was the backlog is almost cleared, so just a tiny bit more patience from some students but we should be right pretty soon.

Danica De Giorgio:
That’s good news. Do we don’t have an estimation then at this stage about how many international students we may be expecting next year for university?

Catriona Jackson:
I’ve stopped doing that crystal gazing thing because it’s just too hard, but we can certainly say that recovery to pre-COVID levels, maybe next year, maybe a little bit later. Keep in mind though, for some universities the students they didn’t get in 2020 are students they haven’t got in second year in 2021 and third year in 2022, so there is some ongoing damage to some universities in quite a profound way, but we’re seeing recovery and working in collaboration with India, a country with whom we have terrific links already. We’re in a really good position.

Danica De Giorgio:
That’s terrific to hear. Catriona Jackson, we have to leave it there. Thank you very much for joining us from India this morning.

Catriona Jackson:
Pleasure.

ENDS