Explainer: Why Social Licence Matters to Everyone in HE right now

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Why does social licence suddenly matter to people working in HE?
Immigration, the housing crisis and cost of living are expected to be the some of the most significant issues driving votes in the looming 2025 Federal Election. Both major parties have identified universities as contributors to each of these issues, claiming that over-enrolment of international students has affected the rental market and spending priorities are out of step with community values. Education has also emerged as an issue, with Gen Z and Millenial voters outnumbering boomers for the first time and HECS/HELP debts arising as an emerging issue. The support by Australian voters for universities to keep operating in the way they currently do – the social licence of universities to continue working this way – is alleged to have waned, with the potential to influence votes and policy. Universities in particular are alleged to have diminished in their perceived utility.

How do you prove that your work is useful?
Australia has no national system to measure research performance, with the last ERA round completed in 2018. Our domestic students pay wildly divergent fees because the Job Ready Graduates scheme, introduced in 2021, has failed in its objectives but remains in place, while both major parties have also committed to reducing our international enrolments by visa slowdowns, caps or other measures, (not because education of international students is bad, but because of the perceived impact of students on the housing market in particular). The fact that we have no agreed system to measure research performance, a discredited policy for domestic course pricing, and an acceptance that international education success is measured by diminished impact on the housing market all mean that the sector cannot wait for national agreed metrics to demonstrate its value to the community. These also suggest that universities have failed to effectively prosecute arguments about why they exist and what success looks like.

So why bother proving that your work is useful?
While a number of Australian universities are going through challenging times, the issues are far worse with some of our key competitors – in the UK, a freeze on domestic student fees for the past eight years has left almost a third in deficit, with 72% forecast to be in the red next year unless conditions improve. Meanwhile in the US, the installation of President Trump’s administration has triggered widespread fears of cuts to university budgets, additional taxes and other policies foreshadowed in the election campaign.

All of which is a concern, but what does this have to do with me?
Both major parties effectively believe that higher education has lost its way. Vice-Chancellor’s salaries and numbers of international students get most of the headlines, but are simply easy points to score at a time when voters are angry and bewildered about their cost of living. Mounting HECS/HELP debt adds to the cost of living concerns, causing a reconsideration of the value of a degree. One of the real problems is that Universities have failed to prove to punters outside the inner sanctum that their work – and continued existence – really matters. This is made a lot harder when we have no national system to measure how good research is, we use a failed policy to set degree prices and we fail to agree as a sector on numerous key issues.
Agreeing to disagree presents as disunity and incoherence to a public used to black and white positions. It is a strength of the system but a weakness of communication.

Why engage people who don’t have anything to do with universities?
Both the Coalition and Labour have plans for substantial reform of the higher education system, albeit in divergent directions. In the past, commentators have said that the sector doesn’t need to bother ‘because there are no votes in supporting higher education’. This is, tertiary education may register in the interests of some, but nationally it is well below issues such as crime, health, cost of living etc.
However the UK and in particular the US experience suggests that while support for universities many not win votes, attacks on universities may yield a much more significant electoral result. 

So what needs to be done next?
Institutions have been able to remain aloof from political shenanigans or talking to the millions of Australians who are not engaged in HE until now, because the rivers of revenue from international students kept the old system afloat. With caps now in place, and uncertainty over the strength of the Australian education brand after visa fee rises, visa processing delays and anti-international student rhetoric, institutions no longer have that luxury. At the same time the rise of AI, and a determination by both major parties for extensive reform means that challenges are afoot on multiple fronts.
In the face of extensive change and uncertainty, the only way forward is for the sector to adopt new approaches in having a say in its own destiny. At the individual level, that starts with understanding what the Australian public is thinking and how you can contribute to regenerating social licence, with all the opportunities that brings. At the institutional level and the sector level, the same process is required, but with approaches that deliver measurable strategic gain – not another safe ad campaign of white coats and saccharine testimonials.
Regaining social licence, showing why the sector matters and helping more Australians to believe that, is arguably the most significant higher education issue right now.
It is all the more remarkable because a sector built on knowledge has none to share about its own social licence.
We have little publicly-available data on what the public thinks or why.
So we need to start asking better questions, and not settle for the same old answers, if we want to develop an authentic and effective new bond with the people who hold our future in their hands – the Australian voting public.

Brand Australia 2025 is a mini-conference organised by Future Campus to dive into the challenges of rebuilding social licence in Australia. It will be held in Canberra on 24 February. Tickets are still available.

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