Recording date: Tuesday 23 August 2022
E&OE
Peter Stefanovic
Joining us now is the Chief Executive of Universities Australia, Catriona Jackson. Good morning to you. So, let’s start with a broad question here. How can the university sector address the current skills shortage, skills crisis actually, in the country?
Catriona Jackson
Universities are so central to fixing this really big problem, Peter. We’re competing with the rest of the world for skilled workers, both here in Australia, and from overseas. Universities can do plenty of things. We’ll work with government, and we’ll use our seats for the Jobs and Skills Summit coming up to deal with a couple of really practical suggestions here. Getting microcredentials better supported so people can go back, retrain and upskill, perhaps move into a different job that’s for Australians here in Australia. Also, just smooth some of those visa pathways. It’s quite complicated when you’re an international student willing to stay on. Only 16 per cent of those international students who’ve already made a huge investment in Australia stay on after their studies. We’d like some of those students, just a few more to up that percentage a bit, to use their Australian education in Australia.
Peter Stefanovic
Would you like those visa fees to be cut once those international students are here all together?
Catriona Jackson
Look, visa fees really are a matter for government. Certainly, Peter, any measures that can make it a little easier for students to stay and use those terrific skills they might have gained in health or IT or teaching, we’d like them to be able to stay in that process. If it’s changing fee structures, I think it’s probably more likely changing the way the visa process works just to make it a little easier for them to stay on.
Peter Stefanovic
How much competition is there at the moment when you factor in all the other countries that have skills shortages as well? How do you make Australian universities more attractive?
Catriona Jackson
Look, it’s like a Carlton/Collingwood football game. It’s absolutely ferociously competitive. We are really up against every other country in the world. Everyone has these sorts of skills shortages, so we need to make sure we’re upskilling, reskilling, offering education to our Australian citizens here, but also making sure that we can continue with what we know is a tradition. We have, as a nation, consistently imported skilled people from overseas. That’s why we’re the rich, fantastic multicultural nation that we are. We need to do those two things in combination and we need to get on with it right now.
Peter Stefanovic
Does there need to be a greater focus on students from India rather than China?
Catriona Jackson
We’ve had some fantastic meetings with the Indian Education Minister who’s in town this week. 1.3 billion people live in India, and they have an ambition to make sure that half a billion of their citizens are educated by 2035. Those numbers are just eyewatering for Australians. Indian students have played a great role here. We think they’ll continue to play a great role. We’d like a few more of them to stay here, but also as a sector, we take our role in educating the region really seriously. And that’s part of us being a responsible citizen, but also getting a great flow of skilled migration.
Peter Stefanovic
Is India an example of where universities need to move away from an overreliance on students from China?
Catriona Jackson
China and India are the two most populous countries in the world. We’ve done very well establishing the third largest export industry, importing those students here and helping them to get a terrific world-class education – some of them staying on and enriching the country in which we live and some of them going home and becoming citizens who talk with real fondness and make business connections back with Australia. They’re both important countries. They both make a real contribution here. Whether one is slightly ahead of another is really a matter for the market.
Peter Stefanovic
What’s the percentage, if you have them, on the number of international students who tend to hang around after they’ve completed their studies here in Australia and join the workforce?
Catriona Jackson
You’ll be surprised to know it’s only 16 per cent. The vast majority of students go home or go off to global careers somewhere else. If we just increase that percentage slightly, we’ll go a long way to sorting out the skill shortage that we’re facing, but as I mentioned before, every other country in the world is facing it too. They’re all competing really hard for those valuable students.
Peter Stefanovic
Okay, Catriona Jackson, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you. We’ll talk to you soon.
