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POLICY & REFORM wealthy, and that equity policies need to stay in place. Diversity is a strength that Australia’ s universities need, she says.
Gardner has been Monash vice-chancellor since 2014, having held the same position at RMIT University before that.
Campus Review sits down with the incoming UA chair to discuss the priorities she will focus on in her new role, and why she believes communication with both the government and the public is essential if universities are to maintain their vital purpose.
CR: What do you hope to achieve as UA chair when you take the helm in May?
MG: I hope that Universities Australia is able to contribute effectively to communicating to the public at large, but also to the government, the significant role that universities have to play in the generation of ideas and growth for Australia. And more generally, I would like it to be understood how the delivery of high quality education and high quality research remains key to universities but is also pivotal to the future of Australia. It is pivotal in a range of ways, both through the way it will contribute and can contribute to innovation, but also in the way it can and does contribute to Australia’ s internationalisation. There are very few countries in the world where the major services export is education, and in Australia, higher education is a large part of that. I think in that context we have to understand that the opportunities for university are also opportunities for Australia, and that they are a part of our openness and connection to the world and that they are an important part of the generation of growth and employment for Australia.
You mention a big part of this is communicating the benefits of universities to the public and government. How would this be done? Universities Australia has put considerable time and energy into communicating to the general public what universities can do and have done and therefore will do. And I think we’ ve started down this path, but I think it inevitably needs more profile, more engagement, more ability to be able to tell people what the outcomes are from a strong, high quality, independent university system. And Australia is very fortunate that it has one of the strongest university systems in the world. We need to be able to communicate those benefits, and communicating that will happen in many different ways through the campaigns you’ ve seen through UA, but also through engagements with government, engagements with our local representatives, and engagements with the communities around this university. It’ s a big task and it doesn’ t happen overnight.
You recently said universities are“ at the heart of Australia’ s openness to the world”. Could you elaborate on that? Universities are largely in the business – through education and research – of ideas. Ideas have no borders. We do our very best work because we engage with people from across the world in research, and in Australia, quite successfully through education. That vibrant, international education system is part, not just of our educating of students, but of our connection to the world, because those students go back into that world with that education, with that understanding of Australia, with links to us – this is often called‘ soft diplomacy’. We are in both parts of the connection of Australia to the world, through our education, and also through our engagement with research with other universities, but also industries across the world. Those things are an important part of ensuring that Australia is an effective, open, place.
There are some who might reject those international links and international students, mainly out of fear, as we’ ve seen with the backlash against internationalisation in the US, UK and parts of Europe. What do you hope to do to prevent this and ensure Australia remains a key player in a vibrant international education sector? I think we must advocate and demonstrate how very important it is. I just came back from overseas talking to groups of our alumni in Asia and in Europe. What we see is two things. We see alumni who’ ve gone from Australia to positions in other places. We also see alumni who came to Australia from places overseas and who are now back in those places, leading organisations there.
When you see the benefit that they derived from their education and the benefit they provide to the countries to which they return – but also in terms of their ongoing links with Australia, and what that means for the nature of our opportunities for our industries, for our people, for our graduates – anybody would be wrong to try and close that down.
Those people welcome our students from Australia when they come to other places. They provide internships. They provide employment opportunities. They build links with businesses in Australia. They bring their businesses here. All these things are a benefit to Australia, and they come, in part, from that very strong international education framework.
Aside from maintaining Australia’ s international education, what are the other big policy challenges facing Australian universities in your mind? The universities always have to be aspiring to higher and higher quality in education and in research. In education, it means that we have to keep innovating in learning and teaching. That does require investment. It means that the universities have to be in a position to be able to invest in the future of the quality of their education. And that’ s everything from the infrastructure we provide – not just buildings, but also the digital infrastructure that supports so much of education now – to the systems and people required to be able to innovate in learning and teaching. The same is true with research; Australia’ s been very fortunate that the Australian university system is a strong contributor and is recognised in the international rankings in terms of international research. It requires ongoing investment to remain a significant part of the ideas generation and knowledge generation of the world. It requires the ability of universities to invest and it requires the strategic investment of government and of industry in that capacity, so we need funding and the policy settings to encourage that investment.
What other important issues do you think UA should be focussing on? Alongside the generation of ideas and growth, the other thing that’ s really important is the need for universities to be open to talent from whatever circumstance it comes. We need to be able to offer the benefits of university education to people irrespective of circumstance. And that’ s also an important part of the mission. It’ s important that university is able to be accessed by people who might otherwise have difficulty accessing it because of the way disadvantage impacts either their initial opportunities, or the way disadvantage affects their ability just to participate in a university education. I think that’ s another thing that we have to strongly focus on. We are very lucky that Australia has a very strong and open, and independent, and high quality university system. So we have to pay attention to that system being able to encompass all those who can benefit, because it won’ t continue to be strong unless it does that. ■
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