A recent article in this masthead spoke to the fact that a significant share of Australian university students are unhappy with the quality of their education, a problem that has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. The students and staff interviewed for the article speak eloquently to the problems this creates on the front line – the disappointment of only seeing your tutors in passing or the frustration of not being given the time to support a struggling student.

What’s perhaps less obvious is that any quality problems in higher education will be a significant drag on our already-flagging productivity growth. In simple terms, that’s because while the quality of our higher education is going backwards, the demand for highly skilled employees is only getting higher.