Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 establishes the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, the ATEC. The ATEC was, of course, a key recommendation from the Australian Universities Accord. When the Albanese Labor government first came into power, the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, identified the need for reform of Australia's higher education sector, and he appointed six Australians to look at seven priority areas in the higher education sector. Considering these priorities, the accord puts forward a long-term vision for rebuilding Australia's tertiary education system. It argues that many more Australians—an increase, in fact, to approximately 80 per cent of the workforce—will require postschool qualifications in coming decades. It also noted that our universities and vocational education providers must work closely together to meet our future skills needs. It recommends expanding opportunities for people who are currently underrepresented in higher education—people like those in the communities that I represent in this chamber, including those from regional communities and from disadvantaged backgrounds—through new learning hubs, additional supported places and stronger financial and academic support. It also called for reforms to funding and student debt, improvements to governance and accountability, and a renewed focus on quality research, innovation and national capability.

The government has implemented 31 of the accord's 47 recommendations. The accord is a blueprint for sector reform for the decades ahead. It will take a long-term vision and a long-term commitment to deliver. To ensure its success, it needs a steward to drive and to steer these reforms, and the ATEC will formally take on this role for the tertiary education sector. As the Minister for Education has said, of all the recommendations in the accord, the establishment of the ATEC may be the most important. The establishment of the ATEC provides a singular opportunity for Australia's future. It provides an opportunity for an independent, expert body to drive real and lasting reform in the higher education sector. It provides an opportunity to uplift the coordination and administration of the sector. It's an opportunity to coordinate and align efforts across higher education institutions—as the Minister for Education says, 'to get the sector to work more like a system'. The ATEC will have its own decision-making powers, and it will take on responsibility for new mission based compacts with individual universities. The ATEC will provide expert advice to government on policy settings and strategic direction, the cost of teaching and learning in higher education, student demand, and meeting Australia's current and future skills and knowledge demand.

The ATEC, by taking a systems approach rather than an individual institutions approach, will ensure that Australian universities can deliver the vital sovereign capabilities that Australia will need in the coming decades. There's nowhere that we need this more than with Australia's engagement with a rapidly-changing world. The current external environment is asking more of Australia's leaders and Australia's institutions than ever before. China is seeking to change the regional balance of power. The Trump administration is pursuing a different role for America in the world. Our neighbours in South-East Asia are seeking to navigate their own way in these changing times.

Australia needs to be able to understand and engage with countries in our own region through our own perspective, and we can't rely on other countries to do this for us. Australia needs our own leaders and our own institutions to have the capabilities necessary to be effective in our region. More than ever before, Australia's security and our prosperity depend on our ability to be effective in our own region. Asia capability—the mix of cultural understanding, language faculties and regional experiences needed to be effective in Asia—underpins all spheres of our national endeavour, our statecraft, our industry, our defence and our civil society. Australia cannot rely on other countries to produce the analysis that we need, to share our research priorities or to develop the relationships that we need to serve our interests. We need the sovereign capability to do these things for ourselves in our own region. It's the foundation of everything that we want to do in our region.

Universities play a vital role in building Australia's Asia capability. It's where students develop expertise in the countries of our region, deepening their focus during honours, master's and PhD programs. I've met countless leaders—Australian ambassadors to countries in our region, business leaders investing in trading in our region and strategic thinkers aiming to understand our region—who all developed their Asia capability while at university. Currently, we benefit from the deep Asia capability within a small number of individuals at the top of our Public Service, universities, civil society and private sector.

However, the expertise of these individuals is the product of investments made decades ago. Unfortunately, the structures and institutions that educated this generation of leaders, increasingly, no longer exists at our institutions of higher education. The pipeline of future Asia-capable leaders is breaking down in Australia. The institutions that we need to develop the next generation of leaders with deep Asia expertise are in crisis. That's why, as Chair of the Standing Committee on Education, I am leading an inquiry into the development of Australia's Asia capability, looking at the enablers and the barriers to addressing this whole-of-nation challenge. Universities are essential to developing this sovereign capability—this Asia capability—for Australia. University language programs and area studies are essential for producing the deep Asia expertise Australia needs to navigate the current circumstances we confront.

Unfortunately, there have been a series of closures of Asian language and area studies programs at universities across the country. The decline in university enrolments in Asian languages and area studies is stark. Between 2004 and 2022, university enrolments in South-East Asian languages declined by 75 per cent. In 1997, there were six Australian universities that taught Hindi; now, there are only two, with only the Australian National University teaching Hindi in person. Only 12 universities now teach Indonesian, down from 22 in the 1990s. Of the more than one million Australian domestic students at Australian universities in 2023, barely 500 students were enrolled in a single subject of Bahasa Indonesia nationwide. As Dr Matthew Davies, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at ANU, confirmed in evidence heard by the committee, the threat to Indonesian studies at Australian universities is 'existential'. Without government intervention, Indonesian studies—the study of language and the study of Indonesian culture and society—risks going extinct. As the founder of the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies, Professor David Hill, said:

Only a handful of highly skilled, Indonesia-focused graduates are now being produced by Australian universities.

He went on to say:

… the current national decline in enrolments has consequences more severe than at any other time during my professional life.

As the University of Sydney wrote in their submission to the inquiry:

The erosion of university-level language and area studies capacity has left government and business without the deep contextual insight needed for long-term strategy.

An Australian Academy of the Humanities report found that only 17 Australians completed honours in Chinese studies with language between 2017 and 2021—no more than five Australians a year. The University of New South Wales shared that student demand for Chinese language courses has fallen by 58 per cent since 2018, and enrolments for Japanese language courses have decreased by 19 per cent. The number of universities and academics conducting deep research into Asian studies is declining precipitously. Across universities, there is no nationally coordinated prioritisation of resources, data collection, leadership or long-term vision for Asia capability. The ATEC presents an opportunity to coordinate and align efforts across the higher education sector to get it working as a system when it comes to building our nation's Asia capability.

ATEC will work closely with other agencies and offices, including Jobs and Skills Australia, TEQSA, the Australian Research Council, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research and state and territory governments to ensure its advice and decisions are informed by the best evidence. We've heard that breaking the cycle of program closures around the country in Asian languages and Asia studies requires government intervention on both the supply of programs and teachers teaching these courses and, importantly, to enhance the demand for Asia-capable individuals. We've heard that structural reform with enforceable commitments is required. Collapsing demand from students for the study of Asian languages has flowed through to the supply of Asian language programs. Universities Australia told the inquiry that teaching costs for language courses have also increased. Data from Deloitte indicates that foreign languages had the second-largest annual cost increase of 6.2 per cent from 2019 to 2020. As Universities Australia wrote:

The combination of declining demand and increased teaching costs has placed significant pressure on universities to offer Asia capability building opportunities at a substantial financial loss.

ATEC could help provide guidance on the costs of teaching and learning that will support meeting Australia's current and future skills needs.

Many Asian language and area studies are kept on the whim of university leaders. As Professor Melissa Croucher said:

In Australia, Asian studies and the study of Asia across the various disciplines … has long relied upon the institutional support of its leaders—its vice-chancellors, deputy vice-chancellors, deans, heads of school, and so forth.

It has also relied upon secure structural foundations—Asian studies degrees, a suite of Asian language offerings, independent research centres, and the study of Asia embedded across a range of disciplines, from law to business.

Yet over the past two decades, there has been a noticeable and alarming trend: a decline in the structures, institutions and people who make the teaching and training of our students possible …

University leaders, who often have limited exposure to or lack of connections with Asia, are often unable to see the value of offering Asian languages or Asian studies units and majors for the nation. Often, there's limited or no leadership support for saving these programs when they're at risk of cuts for financial reasons. Further, the relatively high cost for universities to offer these courses in the context of a demand driven model of higher education often causes these programs to be cut. Unfortunately, the threat of cuts makes the teaching of Asian languages and Asian studies precarious and unappealing for academics and lecturers.

Despite these significant challenges, the research into our region and teaching of Asian languages and area studies is vital for our national interests. Australia needs sovereign Asia capability, and universities need to play a role in developing it. In some cases, universities have attempted to innovate and collaborate to keep language studies alive. For example, people like Professor Greg Hainge from the University of Queensland are trying to innovate in these difficult circumstances. Queensland's three largest universities established the Brisbane Universities Languages Alliance, which offers nine languages to students from three universities. Another institution providing innovative solutions in these difficult times is ANU'S Australian Centre on China in the World. Led by Professor Ben Hillman, the Centre for China in the World has become a nation-leading institution for building risk informed China capability. Professor Hillman has played an innovative role in building pathways for students to develop their Chinese language capability from high school to university and through to postgraduate study.

Initiatives like this are commendable, and, with leadership and coordination from ATEC, initiatives of this kind could have a system-wide impact. The ATEC is an opportunity to provide oversight and coordination to help address some of these problems. We've seen submissions and witnesses in this inquiry say the same thing over and over again. Professor Hainge again has said:

To recognise that we need a coordinated national system is critical. I think we're at an ideal moment with ATEC coming online. This is a body that has stood up to talk about arrangements with universities that extend beyond the life of a single government.

In their written submission to the inquiry, the University of Queensland wrote that Asia capability 'should be advanced by the Australian Tertiary Education Commissions university compacts'. As the University of Queensland wrote:

Not only should there be incentives for universities with educational offerings and research capabilities in Asia literacy, but there should also be incentives for these institutions to expand the reach of their offerings to students studying at other universities. To do this, it will be necessary to find innovative solutions that enable students to add the study of Asian languages and cultures into their degree programs.

The Australian Academy of the Humanities likewise said that ATEC 'should acknowledge Asia capability as one of Australia's priority national capabilities, monitor national gaps and opportunities and set benchmarks through mission based compacts'.

Professor Michael Wesley from the University of Melbourne said:

… ATEC is a real opportunity to have a national approach to Asia capability at our universities.

And we need it now. Our region is increasingly dynamic, complex and consequential. Fundamental assumptions about Australian strategic and foreign policy are being challenged. We need the skills and capabilities to make our own way in the region. To be effective in our own region, we need our leaders and our institutions to be Asia capable. Unless we choose to make developing Asia capability a priority as a nation, we are choosing to leave our future security and prosperity to be determined by others.

Universities play a critical role in developing the Asia capability we need for our future. We heard it consistently through the parliamentary inquiry, and ATEC, with its own decision-making powers and responsibility for new mission based compacts with individual universities, presents an opportunity to get our universities back on track when it comes to developing the Asia capability that Australia needs.

I congratulate Professor Mary O'Kane and Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt for their work as interim commissioners of ATEC. (Time expired)

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