Universities call for foreign students to study for defence jobs

Universities want ­Defence internships and work to be offered to more than 100,000 international students a year from strategic partners.

Universities Australia says opening Defence work experience and employment to AUKUS, Five Eyes and Quad nations’ candidates could provide a ‘critical mass’ of new Defence personnel.

Australian universities want ­Defence internships and work opportunities that are currently only available to Australian citizens to be offered to more than 100,000 international students a year from the nation’s closest strategic partners.

In a submission to the government’s defence strategic review, Universities Australia said opening Defence work experience and employment to AUKUS, Five Eyes and Quad nations’ candidates could provide a “critical mass” of new Defence personnel.

It told the review, chaired by former defence minister Stephen Smith and former chief of the ­Defence Force Sir Angus Campbell, that universities were “uniquely positioned” to help Defence meet its workforce challenges.

Universities, which have been heavily reliant on Chinese students to fund their operations, called for the government to consider expanding university places in Defence-relevant courses, and increase the number of students sponsored y by the department.

The submission urged a dramatic increase of the Defence work experience program from 170 placements a year to “help ­Defence build a pipeline of interested students with an understanding of Defence culture as well as formative professional experience in their chosen occupation”.

Opening the Australian-only internships to students from ­“allied” nations would expand the number of potential applicants each year by about 107,000, the submission said, including more than 91,000 from Quad partner India.

The potential pool would also include 6300 students from Quad nation Japan, 2800 US and 3700 British students from the AUKUS and Five Eyes allies, and 3000 from Five Eyes partner Canada.

“Universities educate over 400,000 international students annually. About a quarter of these students come from Australia’s key strategic allies and Five Eyes partner countries,” the submission said.

“While there are valid national security considerations to be considered, the current policy settings restrict access to a wide cross-section of the Australian university cohort and limit Defence’s ability to recruit internationally, despite the rigorous existing vetting and risk mitigation procedures in place.”

Defence has pledged, with bipartisan backing, to expand its ADF and civilian workforce by at least 18,500 personnel over the next two decades to meet growing strategic threats. But the number of workers required with ­Defence-relevant skills is far higher, given the need to expand Australia’s sovereign defence ­industry to build nuclear submarines, sub-hunting frigates, and sophisticated new missiles and drones.

The universities said they stood ready to work with Defence to address the “wicked problem” of growing strategic uncertainty, rising defence equipment costs and worsening skills shortages.

The nation’s 39 member institutions were well-placed to support Defence through research programs on weapons and military systems, culture and languages, and systems design; and by “producing workers trained to think about defence-specific problems”, the submission said.

In its submission, the sector urged closer co-ordination between Defence and universities on future workforce needs, including a joint analysis of the personnel requirements of planned new capability and sustainment proposals.

“Australia needs more trained and trainable people to support our nation’s defence,” it said.

“The Australian teaching system needs to teach enough people to provide breadth and depth across many areas of Defence need.”

While students were given preferential subsidies by the former government to pursue ­science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses, Universities Australia said humanities and social science programs were also “critical to producing graduates for the Defence workforce and should be considered of equal importance as STEM programs”.

“Universities produce knowledge workers with the capability to teach themselves skills, because their university education has taught them how to learn, and how to continue learning throughout their lives,” it said.

“These are exactly the kinds of people needed to contribute to the changing Defence landscape.”

Expanding Defence sponsorship of university places, which ­require students to agree to serve for a period in the ADF, “could open greater recruitment pathways for Defence by attracting students with a wider range of further education interests than are currently offered”.

Australia’s eight most research-intensive universities also provided a submission to the ­review, urging talented students and university researchers to be paired to work with industry partners in an area of defence need.