Alan Tudge to urge university leaders to get students back to campus

Education Minister Alan Tudge will tell university leaders to bring students back to campus as soon as they can.

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge will call on university leaders to bring back the normal university experience for Australian students and quickly return to face-to-face learning where Covid rules allow.

In a speech on Thursday to the annual Universities Australia conference in Canberra – the first such gathering since the pandemic hit – Mr Tudge will tell university leaders that too few students are on campus.

“I am still hearing from too many students or their parents who tell me that their usual student experience has still not returned. That they may only have one contact hour or none,” he will say in the speech.

“So for this year, we must see a focus in our universities on how to enhance the classroom and learning experience of Australian students. Some do it brilliantly, but it should be all that do it brilliantly.”

Mr Tudge will also upbraid vice-chancellors for lack of attention to the needs of Australian students.

“In the past several months, I have had almost every vice-chancellor talk to me about research and international students, but not many talk to me about their ambitions for Australian students,” he will say.

Mr Tudge’s comments come as universities in Victoria are being required to abandon campus classes and return to online teaching in the state’s latest Covid lockdown.

In an interview with The Australian on Wednesday the new chair of Universities Australia, John Dewar, agreed that student attendance on campus was not yet back to normal.

“But the universities I’m aware of are planning at least a 90 per cent return to campus (in second semester),” said Professor Dewar, who is vice-chancellor of La Trobe University. However, he warned that return plans could be affected by the latest Covid outbreak.

He said that, while universities wanted to return to face-to-face teaching, there were several complicating factors. Much of this year’s semester one timetabling had to be done at the end of last year when the pandemic situation was unclear, he said, and many students who could not come to campus had to be accommodated, including offshore international students and those who, for health reasons, preferred to study online.

In Victoria, the University of Melbourne plans to have 90 per cent of its subjects delivered on campus by semester two, depending on how long the lockdown and succeeding restrictions last. The University of Sydney said it offered on-campus elements in 80 per cent of its subjects this semester, but large lectures remain online. The University of Queensland said 90 per cent of its undergraduate students have on-campus elements in their courses.

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek will use the UA conference to foreshadow its suite of higher education policies before the next election.

Ms Plibersek will say on Thursday she wants to work with vice-chancellors to solve the shortage of commonwealth-funded university places: “Labor recognises this growing problem. And we’re committed to working with universities to find out the best way to solve it.”

Ms Plibersek will also flag opening up Anthony Albanese’s pre-election proposal of a $15bn National Reconstruction Fund to universities.

In his interview, Professor Dewar also called on governments to end buck passing on the return of international students to Australia: “We need a strong political commitment to reopening borders and sending a positive signal out.”