The University of Technology Sydney is providing a $2 million boost for Australian researchers, offering an additional 70 domestic research scholarships this year as pandemic border restrictions continue to keep away international students.
Professor Kate McGrath, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research) at UTS, said the increase in scholarships to 234 from 163 last year would help “underwrite this next generation of Australian researchers”.
“This investment is critical to maintain the university’s research capacity over the coming years, particularly to fill the gap that will continue as long as borders remain closed to international research students,” she said.
UTS research student Raissa Gill is looking into how bushfires affect water quality.
Supervisors are seeking 70 students to help with several hundred research projects such as looking into new bioplastics that capture carbon, assessing the impacts of bushfire smoke on coastal waters and exploring artificial intelligence in 6G networks.
Raissa Gill is among a group of UTS research students studying how bushfire smoke affects the microbial ecology of coastal waters in Australia. Her supervisor is Professor Martina Doblin, who leads the Productive Coasts research program at UTS and is also chief executive of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.
A PhD candidate in the UTS Faculty of Science on a Research Excellence Scholarship, Gill has recently been on a field trip to collect samples from eight estuaries between Sydney and the NSW-Victorian border to understand how phytoplankton communities respond to bushfire smoke.
“I’m investigating how particulates collected from smoke during the Black Summer 2019 bushfires influence the microbial communities in NSW estuaries,” Gill said. “I’ve been working with locals impacted by the bushfires in the South Coast region. These communities are really interested in understanding how the bushfires influence water quality so that they can make informed decisions on how to manage their waterways for uses such as aquaculture and recreation.”
UTS research student Raissa Gill on her field trip.Credit:Callum Muir
Professor McGrath said in the past decade the investment in local research has been flat.
“We haven’t really seen an augmentation of domestic students undertaking our research programs, and most of the growth has come from international students coming into Australia who participate and help drive and support and uplift our research endeavour,” she said.
“Not having a good number of students participating can diminish our capabilities in those areas. That will be felt long after the borders have reopened.”
“Not having a good number of students participating [in research programs] can diminish our capabilities in those areas. That will be felt long after the borders have reopened.”
UTS Deputy Vice-Chancellor Kate McGrath
More than 40 per cent of post-graduate enrolments at Australian universities were international students before the pandemic, with new research warning now the future viability of some courses is at risk.
Professor Emeritus Frank Larkins, a higher education researcher from the University of Melbourne, found the proportion of all overseas students enrolled at the postgraduate level increased from 28 per cent in 2001 to 40 per cent in 2019, making them important in a COVID-19 recovery.
The pandemic continues to strongly impact the tertiary sector after many universities cut staff and courses in 2020. Australia’s international border restrictions are also set to stay for the remainder of 2021.
Professor Larkins’ research found 61 per cent of the postgraduate course workload at 19 universities in 2019 was carried by international students. Some institutions including the Federation University in regional Victoria had an even greater reliance on international students,, who contributed 90 per cent of postgraduate course work. At Central Queensland University (CQU) the international students completed 87 per cent of the course work.
More than 40 per cent of overseas students at eight of the 19 universities were doing postgraduate courses. The highest proportion were at CQU (89 per cent), Charles Sturt (70 per cent) and Federation (59 per cent).
“These universities are the ones that must be most challenged to fund and deliver viable postgraduate course work programs in 2021 and beyond,” the study found. “The capacity to deliver viable postgraduate course work programs will form an important part of the pandemic recovery.”
A Charles Sturt University spokesman confirmed the postgraduate course work load data cited by Professor Larkins was in line with its own. But the viability of courses was not yet at risk, with applications and acceptances to study postgraduate courses “up on last year’s 2019 figures”, he said.
CQU vice-chancellor Professor Nick Klomp said the postgraduate load figure was balanced by the university’s higher percentage of domestic undergraduate students. The university has also restructured its operations and cut spending to manage the impact of the pandemic.
“Our postgraduate offerings are not at risk despite international border closures,” Professor Klomp said. “As well as delivering courses online to offshore students, CQUniversity has been actively growing its domestic postgraduate cohort long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokesman for Federation declined to comment.
Professor Larkins said domestic students could “backfill” some vacancies in postgraduate courses, but it would be a challenge for universities.
Chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia Phil Honeywood said Australian universities relied heavily on overseas students for post graduate course enrolments in STEM fields. He said Professor Larkins’ research was “on the money” and that some smaller niche areas of study could be at risk of discontinuation with even a small fall in enrolments.
Nicole Brigg, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) at Macquarie University, said her uni had a high concentration of enrolments in a small number of postgraduate courses most popular with domestic students.
“So while numbers are reduced, the viability of these programs is not in question,” she said. “Macquarie’s accounting, commerce, applied finance and actuarial programs account for most of the load with the addition of popular areas such as IT and Engineering Management.”
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Anna Patty is a Senior Writer for The Sydney Morning Herald with a focus on higher education. She is a former Workplace Editor, Education Editor, State Political Reporter and Health Reporter.
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