Hi all,
Campus is a little quieter this week, as we begin the two-week teaching break. I know I have friends and colleagues traveling, attending conferences, visiting family and catching up on paperwork and email. And I know that many are still at work too, and helping keep things moving forward, including setting us up for next year. My thanks to all.
It might be a little quieter on campus, but our sector and our University continue to be in the spotlight. Last week TEQSA shared the news that they have appointed an independent expert who is part of the ongoing Self Assurance process with ANU. We welcome to our community and we are lucky to have someone of her calibre as part of this process. I am quite certain that her insights will help us to continue to improve our governance culture.
We are continuing to work with the Department of Education as our 2026 domestic and international student targets are being set. Last month, the Department announced an increase in international student places for 2026; of the 25,000 additional international student places, 17,500 will be for public universities. This was a welcome announcement. It reminds the international members of our community that they are welcome here and are valued. It also sends an important market signal to our Education Agents and Future Students that the Australian Government values and continues to invest in international education. This reassurance was much needed after 18 months of public discourse leading up to this year’s election about restricting access to study in Australia.
The Government has opened an application process by which all public universities, including ANU, can apply to access a proportion of these 17,500 new places in order to increase their New Overseas Student Commencement Number (NOSC) allocation. The University plans to submit an application to request some of the additional growth allocated by the Minister. We have a lot to offer our future students, and the Government have indicated they will take into consideration several factors when allocating this growth, including access to student accommodation and engagement with Southeast Asia, both of which are strengths for the University. However, we must remain realistic about how much growth might be on offer, the University’s current market share of commencing international students in Australia is less than 3 per cent and the Government is aware we still have room to grow under our current allocation of 3,400 places – we are at 84 per cent of that allocation for 2025. At a minimum we are guaranteed to be allocated 3,400 places again in 2026. I want to thank all those across the University who are working on our application.
We are also engaging with the Department on their new policy regarding future domestic student numbers; I will share more on this soon. My thanks here to Scott Pearsall and team and Richelle Hilton who are excellent advocates for the University in this process and who are helping navigate a complex set of numbers, policy settings and regulators. What is becoming increasingly clear from all our engagements is that there is limited growth for our whole sector in 2026, and far more constraints than we have previously experienced.
Closer to home, we have continued to find ways to celebrate members of our community for their remarkable accomplishments. Last week, I hosted several functions at the Vice-Chancellor’s Residence: one recognised the winners of the and the other to acknowledge the recent recipients of ARC funding and the people in the University who helped support the application processes. There were lots of opportunities to talk to people from across campus and for new connections to be forged and old ones to be renewed. A special thanks to Associate Professor Caroline Schuster who gave a powerful reflection on the importance of teaching and how we continue to shape the future in our classrooms.
I know this continues to be a challenging time for many in our community and the University remains committed to supporting both and students. And just finally, I want to reiterate what I said in last week’s message, especially in light of some of the things that happened around our capital cities on the weekend: racism, discrimination and vilification have no place on our campus or in our community, and we will continue to act together to help make this a safe and welcoming place for all.
Good thoughts to wherever this finds you,
G
