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University of Newcastle city campus . Photo : UON media team
Forward thinking
The challenges and opportunities of steering a regional university through uncertain times .
Alex Zelinsky interviewed by Martin Betts
University of Newcastle vice chancellor Alex Zelinsky recently joined HEDx to outline its five-year strategy called Looking Ahead . A leader with CSIRO and Defence Scientist backgrounds , Zelinsky dismisses the prospect of research commercialisation replacing lost international student revenue .
He instead outlines a future path based on community engagement and blended student experiences , while fully recognising the importance of shaping culture and getting staff on board with change at these most difficult of times .
MB : Give us your thoughts on how well prepared the Australian university sector is to move its focus to research commercialisation in the way that the minister intends . I think this has been a work in progress for most of this century now . In the early 2000s , certainly when I was working at the CSIRO and at the ANU , we were very much talking about commercially using our research and moving to getting an impact from the research ; in other words , translating it for the benefit of society .
Commercialisation of research can benefit industry , but you can also have a translation of research helping government or not for profits . Basically , we want to make sure the research results are translated , and picked up by society , business and government for an overall benefit for Australia , and the planet , ultimately .
That agenda hasn ’ t gone away . I think there ’ s just more expectation , more emphasis being placed on it . I ’ ve certainly been involved in that work personally , and I feel like our university is well placed to address the challenges that the minister ’ s put in front of us .
I ’ ve been saying to the government and others that commercialisation of research is a great thing for Australia , but it is not going to be a big money spinner for universities . If you look around the world to the best universities that do translate their research , it ’ s somewhere around three to five per cent of the bottom line budget in terms of revenue . You don ’ t do it for the money , you do it to make a difference .
Certainly , our university is primarily centred in the Hunter region and the Central Coast , and the Hunter Valley is a big , resources-based economy , with big industry , and we ’ re in transition to a low carbon emissions future . We can help in doing that by translating our work and helping industry . We see our responsibility as helping the region create the industries and the jobs of tomorrow , rather than get a big return for the university .
What do you make of the suggestion that the lost revenue from international students might be almost entirely replaced by revenue streams for commercialisation ? Well , if it is feasible or possible , I ’ d like to see where that ’ s been done . One of the challenges is that Australia ’ s economy is basically an SME economy . Ninety-per cent of our businesses are small businesses employing four or less people . That means they ’ ve got a limited capacity to take on innovation , and certainly we can do startups , or we can help businesses scale up . That ’ s important . But I think the structure of our economy is not that well placed so that universities can just go out there and push out the research . What you have to have is receptors , and the industry has got to be ready to take that on .
One of the things I learnt when I worked at the CSIRO that was Australia hasn ’ t got a deep talent pool of CEOs or leaders who could lead in , say , high-tech and do that sort of startup element . I was a professor who went off and became a CEO – a bit unusual in a business – and I learnt a lot of things out of that . A lot of our researchers at universities haven ’ t got the skills or the interest in being a CEO of a business . So , the question is then , who will do that job ? That ’ s a real gap we have in this country .
Newcastle has been a strong player in distance education . Is this a market and an opportunity that ’ s prominent in your thinking about where Newcastle will focus in a post-COVID world ? It ’ s clear that Australian universities who are very much focused on international education through an onshore market will bring students here . While it benefits the university , it also benefits Australian society more broadly , because those folk also consume services , spend money , and they almost spend I think as much money in the community as they spend on their own student fees , so there ’ s a real economic benefit in that . Also , there ’ s a pipeline of potential people who are talented graduates , who could become part of a skills program into migration into Australia . I think one of the things which is looming as a real danger and a risk for the Australian economy with the shut borders is that we ’ re going to have a skills shortage .
While universities do train a lot of people , we ’ re not training enough . We may have had too much emphasis on shore . Obviously , with diversifying ,
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