What does the COVID-19 crisis mean for universities now and over the next 6-12 months? 

There’s a lot that is uncertain. From job losses to student recruitment, future university business models and the role higher education will play in making a post-COVID society - the consequences of the pandemic are still emerging. 

The social settings of the post-COVID world will be different to those we have known. 

But the terms of those settings are not yet in place - that’s why there’s so much at stake. 

To help get a sense of where the cracks are emerging in Australian higher education and how different parts of the sector are responding, The New Social Contract podcast talks to: 

Dr Alison Barnes, President of the National Tertiary Education Union 

& 

Luke Sheehy, Executive Director of the Australian Technology Network (ATN), an umbrella body for technical universities including UTS, RMIT, University of South Australia and Curtin University. 

For show notes and transcript visit: https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/impact-studios/projects/new-social-contract-podcast 

News grabs used in the montage at the start of the episode feature the voices of: 

Journalist Ellen Fanning, presenting The Drum on the ABC, aired on May 13 2020. 

Kylie Walker, CEO of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, on the ABC 7.30 Report, titled ‘Fears for the viability of Australia's top universities without international students’. 

Victorian Minister for Higher Education Gayle Tierney on ABC Melbourne on May 20, 2020. 

An exchange between Labor Senator Murray Watt and Deputy Secretary for the Department of Education Robert Heferen at the Senate Select Committee for Covid 19 on May 19, 2020. 

An additional sound bite was kindly submitted to The New Social Contract podcast by Susan Goodwin, a Professor of Policy Studies from the University of Sydney, to discuss a UniKeeper policy document.