BR: Well I have to say it’s been a really rich programme. Every session that I’ve been to has been extremely stimulating and the breadth of topics has been very broad.

“This conference was always going to have a very heavy focus on the proposed reforms”

You have to put this into context – when we have legislation to fund the sector in the Senate at the moment, this conference was always going to have a very heavy focus on the proposed reforms. Not just the process in relation to those reforms, where they might go and what might happen to them, but also the content of them.

The process has been put in place that has taken us to the position we are at currently – what’s going to happen if the reforms don’t get through, what are the alternatives going to be? I think this played out in every session in some way, shape or form.

We’ve had some fantastic insights from international institutions as well, and the thing that has really struck me about those presentations has been the level of homogeneity internationally around the sorts of issues that we are all having to confront.

We are all struggling with how we can make these processes as effective as they can possibly be, in a way that it is most likely to deliver success.

The PIE: Was that a clear message from this year’s event, to try to learn some of your peer countries?

BR: Absolutely, and in every conference we run we have a strong international component to it, because we are all grappling with the same issues. It’s fantastic for all of us to be able to share experiences, share the challenges we are facing, to be able to discuss it within a context, and a policy making process, for how institutions around the world are dealing with challenges.

“Perhaps we must start thinking about how young people can move along a parallel path of work and study at the same time”

So that’s been a really good frame. I think we’ve also seen at this conference too, a really strong focus on improving research,  industry-university collaboration and partnerships.

The PIE: There were a few quite bold speakers. For example, Catherine Livingstone suggesting that the four-year degree is possibly too long. Do you think timeframe around delivery of education is something we will see fundamentally change?

BR: We are already seeing quite significant changes in universities and how they operate and how they are moving to three-semester years. We’re seeing a lot more flexible teaching. I think one of the radical ideas [Catherine Livingstone, President of Business Council of Australia] had suggested is that when we get to the age of 16 or year 11, perhaps we must start thinking about how young people can move along a parallel path of work and study at the same time.

A very interesting idea but certainly reflects another theme from the conference: the speed with which everything is moving. How can not just business and industry and the workplace, but universities keep up?

The PIE: Internationalisation and international education is also an important facet of Australian HE. How has the conversation about these issues evolved?

BR: In every conference we have, internationalisation is an absolute core part of the business we are in. Australia has really been, I think, at the forefront of international education. We talk about it in being in three ways: the first was about aid and development, and the original Colombo plan was really about Australia seeking to educate students as part of a development aid objective in the region.

The second way was around building the international education business within Australia. We see significant numbers who think – not just within our region but primarily – about coming to study in Australia as a destination of choice for university study.

“Internationalisation is an absolute core part of the business we are in”

Now we are really moving into the third way, which is really about not just bringing people into the country, but about encouraging our students to incorporate an overseas studying experience as part of their university degree.

The PIE: Outbound mobility seems to be a new priority..

BR: We see it as a really imperative priority for the university sector. We now have the new Colombo plan which is all about governments working with universities to encourage more students to study overseas.

And in parallel of course, universities also on their own outside are having plans and programmes in place to have more students studying overseas. We’re also seeing a lot of transnational education; many of our universities now setting up centres and campuses all around the world.

We are increasingly operating as a university sector in a globalised market, where Australia also has to be thinking about those things. How we can maintain and enhance our competitive position as a destination of choice to study, not just within Australia but offshore as well.

The PIE: And if the government were to suggest a strategy to enhance the number of international students coming onshore, how do you think the university sector could respond to that challenge?

BR: We have experience in this area and in providing international education. We are good at it, our institutions are good at it, we’ve got strong track records in delivering international education. However, we have to be careful in how we do it; any growth aspirations need to have in mind that this growth is sustainable.

“Our institutions are very exposed to the international market to the extent that around 30% of university revenues come from international education”

We need to make sure that if we will continue to grow international education efforts, that we can provide accommodation and adequate support for those students, that we can provide all of the things that really give them a positive experience. We don’t want people coming to Australia and leaving feeling unhappy about the experience they’ve had here.

With that in mind I think we always have to be concerned to ensure that any growth is sustainable growth and we have thought about what that means.

We also need to be a bit careful in Australia too, our institutions are very exposed to the international market to the extent that around 30% of university revenues come from international education.

That does suggest a level of vulnerability to things like currency exchange changes, and to a market that can be quite volatile for a whole variety of reasons. So we just need to be careful that we really understand what ‘increasing the proportion of revenue that comes from international education’, that we understand what that means, we understand the risks and have strategies in place to be able to mitigate against these risks.