Ministerial Direction 107, Shaping Australia Awards: Latest rundown of higher education

From the Chief Executive Officer

What a week! It’s been a busy one with so much happening, and I’d just add how fantastic it was to see so many of you involved in key events this week.?

We had the DVC-I meeting, the Australian International Education Conference (AIEC) and the University Governance Conference, with lots of members and Vice-Chancellors actively participating.?

It’s been wonderful connecting with so many of you, especially in Melbourne for the AIEC, which felt even more significant as we do our best to navigate the evolving international landscape together.?

In his address on Wednesday, Minister Clare acknowledged the impact of Ministerial Direction 107 on the sector, calling it a blunt instrument that is hurting a lot of universities across the board. Despite this, the Minister stood firm on keeping the destructive instrument in place until legislation on caps for international students is passed.?

Now, with just two weeks left in the parliamentary year, the pressure is on the Government to push this legislation through amidst a packed legislative agenda. The other factor is whether the Government can secure majority support for the bill. Securing majority support is another challenge, but all signs indicate the Coalition vote in favour. We’ll continue to update you as we learn more.?

Despite the Government’s unwillingness to lift MD107, UA has and will continue to advocate for its immediate removal. After the Minister’s comments this week, we were back out yesterday highlighting the pain this instrument continues to cause. If you missed it, you can read our press release here .?

On a brighter note, I was delighted to join Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at RMIT on Wednesday as part of his visit for the second Australia-India Education and Skills Council meeting. This is a wonderful initiative to further strengthen the education and skills links between our two countries. It’s always a privilege to meet Minister Pradhan – whether in Australia or India – as we work to keep education at the heart of our bilateral relationship.?

In other news, the New Colombo Plan External Advisory Group today met today with stakeholders across the sector as part of the consultations to shape the strategic direction of the program. As a member of the group, I am pushing hard to ensure all universities are properly consulted on the upcoming changes. We are working closely with DFAT and hope to arrange a webinar with all members soon.

And in case there’s not enough voting going on around Australia or the world we’ve opened the 2024 Shaping Australia Awards People’s Choice voting . We’d love for you to share this with your networks—friends, family, colleagues and suppliers. The People's Choice is a great way to highlight the 15 incredible projects in the finalist list and showcase why universities matter to Australia’s future. The more we engage the wider community, the more we can celebrate the impact our sector is making. So please encourage everyone to get involved and support the finalists – every vote counts.

Looking ahead, we’re just a few weeks away from our final Plenary meeting for the year. I’m very much looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible either in person in Canberra or online. This will be an important opportunity to take stock of the year that’s been and start planning for a big 2025.?

Finally, invitations went out this week for UA’s end-of-year thank you event, to be held in Canberra on 27?November. If you’re in Canberra on the day, I’d love to see you there!?

I’ll leave it there for today. I hope you all have a great weekend.

Luke Sheehy

Chief Executive Officer, Universities Australia