Back in 2010, I was a member of the AIEC Organising Committee and invited Simon Anholt to be the Opening Plenary Speaker that year. Simon developed the Nation Brands Index, a survey conducted in 20 major advanced and emerging economies to measure perceptions, and he leveraged this data to advise foreign governments on their identity and reputation.
During his speech, Simon summarised Australia’s reputation from the latest survey results and the importance of international education. He coined the phrase, “Australia, the dumb blonde” of the world, attractive but shallow and unintelligent. He poked fun at Australia not having any valuable brands or products to export (minerals not included). He described countries as either decorative or useful; Australia skewed decorative. These comments generated quite a bit of press at the time. How dare anybody, particularly an Englishman, be critical of our country and people! Around the same time, Australia was similarly described as “a quarry with a view”. Equally damning!
Fast forward 14 years and the base premise of his speech is still relevant today (links to the recording in 3 parts: 1/3, 2/3and 3/3) and one could question how far Australia has advanced since.
Simon joked it is a very boring index as there is little change from one year to the next. In 2010 Australia was ranked 9th overall and retains the same rank in 2024, after minor fluctuations during the intervening years. Being friendly and welcoming, tourism and governance were the drivers of the 2010 result. Indeed, brands need careful management, otherwise they drift or display entropy.
However, between 2008 and 2010, known colloquially as the first “perfect storm”, Australia’s rank amongst Indians fell significantly from 7th to 14th which was a direct result, unfortunately, of the attacks on Indian students. This resulted in a severe decline amongst South Asian students of Australia’s reputations for safety, leading to a significant drop in international student commencements, subsequent college closures and a seven-year recovery.
At the end of his speech, he posed the questions: what are countries for? What is Australia for? Who is guiding our direction? What can the education sector do as education is extremely important to the economic benefit of a country? One of his suggested solutions was to teach anthropology to 6-year-olds to create a very understanding, tolerant, multicultural society that could be the envy of the world.
So, where are we now?
The new education minister was off to a strong start during the Universities Australia conference in July 2022 as the country was recovering from COVID: speaking of consultation and collaboration with the sector due to its national importance.
Two years later we now know what that looks like! There has been slow visa processing that has favoured ‘elite’ universities at the expense of the majority of institutions with regionals feeling the pain more than most. Prospective student caps to slow rapid migration are now being impolitely referred to as “robocap”. In the recent senate enquiry, Stephen Nagle, CEO of Holmes Institute, stated the only caps that should be handed out are “dunces caps” for such a floored methodology!
As Simon indicated, overall reputations can sustain some negativity but back in 2010 students voted with their feet and didn’t come to Australia in the same numbers for several years. Australia had very quickly lost it’s safe and welcoming status.
Based on this insight, Australia’s overall reputation may or may not suffer as a result of negative publicity about Ministerial Direction 107 and caps – time will tell. However, during COVID students were told to go home if they couldn’t afford to stay. Now their visa applications aren’t being processed. They are not being welcomed, so reputations aside, will students vote with their feet once again?
The Lygon Group, via The Social Source, released survey results recently that shows international students are now expressing a majority negative sentiment via social media towards studying in Australia. ROI is a key metric now for students and I have written previously about students increasingly looking to alternative destinations in Asia and Europe. Applications have declined. How long could recovery take from these proposed caps and what will be the long-term economic disruption to the industry, national and state economies? Based on the proposed caps, the decline in tuition fees from new commencements alone in 2025 could be circa A$1B nationally. International education is Victoria’s largest export. The state is broke and with 30% market share, is very concerned about the detrimental impact this could have on the state’s economy.
In 2001, The Hon. Kim Beasley pitched for Prime Minister on a Knowledge Economy platform. Australia had to become smarter and not just rely on our mineral resources. He didn’t win the election but hindsight would suggest he had the right vision. At last count, educational service exports were running 4th behind iron ore, coal and gas.
Since then, the international education industry is contributing to the creation a Knowledge Economy via record international student enrolments. Australia now has home grown technology businesses such as Atlassian, Canva and Airtrunk, that are world leaders in their category. Yet it feels like our leaders are putting the brakes on by reducing the funds available for education and research.
In 2014 Simon developed the Good Country Index, “to measure what each country on earth contributes to the common good of humanity, and what it takes away, relative to its size.” In the latest version, Australia ranked 18th overall. It would be a lot lower if not for the perception that Australia is a charitable country.
The Senate, in their forthcoming review, should evaluate the additional submissions being drafted through a lens of what Australia can contribute to global order, not just short-term, knee-jerk, immigration reductions. After all, enrolment and commencement numbers are on the long-term trend.
Global contribution should become a metric for successive federal governments to improve our global position. Why couldn’t Australia aim to be in the top 5 countries and mobilise the nation behind this significant, long-term goal? Reputations may be slow to change but without a strategy, goal and management, it will remain at the whim of global public opinion.
Meanwhile, those 6-year-olds would be 20 now, many likely at university. Would they be more tolerant? Would there be less campus invasions? Rhetorical questions but interesting to reflect on what decisions should be made to make a long-term improvement and strong contribution to global order.
It’s a cliché but I believe Australia has this decade to sort out what the international education sector should be like. Otherwise, prepare for a decline in the global league tables. Imagine a future where:
- Providers could achieve their international student load based on their requirements with support from third party suppliers, without unnecessary interference.
- Providers collaborate closely with industry to deliver curriculum that meets the job demand in Australia and is valuable to employers elsewhere.
- Providers, purpose-built student accommodation developers, homestay and so on, can make long-term investment decisions with confidence to ensure there are beds to match provider demand and support services to ensure the appropriate pastoral care.
- Government bodies provide supportive frameworks of legislation, structures and processes to keep out the rogues, rather than add barriers to quality providers.
- Latent awareness of international students amongst the community expands to become a social licence, encouraging the industry to flourish.
Australia has all these instruments; they just need to be arranged like a symphony orchestra. Then an experienced (political) conductor (brand manager), or series of conductors, needs to be elected to keep the orchestra playing in harmony.
AIEC 2024 will be upon us in October. There will be lots of discussion about recent events. That discussion, with input from the anthropologists amongst us, needs to be translated into an Australian score, a symphony that restores flagging national pride in the industry and one the world wants to applaud. To ensure Australia is not torn apart; continued to be taken seriously as a significant player in global education and the country that is both decorative and useful!
