University of Sydney plan for life without China

Mark Scott calls on the higher education sector to address the high levels of casualisation in its workforce as he raises the alarm about the side effects of insecure work.

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott has raised the alarm over the drop in federal government funding for universities over recent decades. Picture: Louise Cooper

Sydney University vice-chancellor Mark Scott says his institution is prepared for the possibility of China turning off its tap of students coming to study at Australian universities, with a “contingency plan” in place to deal with the economic fallout.

It follows data showing Chinese students failing to return to study at the same rate as the rest of the world, with commencements down 21 per cent compared to last year, as revealed by The Australian this week.

In contrast, Indian commencements increased by 21 per cent from about 27,400 to 33,300, and Nepal recorded an increase of more than 70 per cent, up from 12,500 to 21,500.

China issued a warning to its students during the pandemic not to return to study in Australia, signalling they would face “racism” if they did so. The statement came amid the imposition of Chinese sanctions on numerous Australian exports including barley, beef and wine.

Professor Scott said China turning off the student tap was “a risk that we need to consider”.

While noting Chinese students had stayed enrolled in Sydney University at unexpectedly high rates through Covid, Professor Scott said the institution had a “clear strategy” to diversify its intake and a plan to operate without Chinese students.

“One of the things we have clearly done about that is to build our resilience, to build up our future fund, to have investments that would help us work our way through a shock that would happen if all of a sudden there were no Chinese students coming to any Australian university,” he told the National Press Club.

“We’re looking after them (Chinese students). We’re looking to diversify our student intake. We’ve been prudent around our finances to be as resilient around this uncertain issue as we’re in the face of great uncertainty.”

As the chairman of the government’s expert panel into teacher training, Professor Scott slammed the entry standards for students wanting to enter a teaching degree at some universities as “disturbingly low”. “I can tell you the ATAR levels at some universities for initial teacher education are really quite low and I would argue disturbingly low,” he said. “This is a challenging thing to work through.”

He said there needed to be “a different program” for mid-career teachers, and raised the possibility of government paying people through their degree.

“I think teaching should be a very … attractive profession for some people who already had a career and are looking to make a change,” he said. “It’s very hard for many of those people, they may be in their late 30s or 40s. They may have a mortgage, families, an expensive life. I think one of the issues that governments around the country may have to realise is they may have to pay those students while they study.”