After a tumultuous 18 months for the Australian higher education
sector, it appears that there is little relief in sight.
If you thought the last eighteen months were challenging
for the Australian higher education sector, a new report from Victoria University's Mitchell
Institute suggests the worst is yet to come.
The report shows how the sector's increasing reliance on
revenue from international students over the last two decades has
left many universities exposed to unexpected external shocks. And
as external shocks go, an ongoing global pandemic is hard to
beat.
In 2020, Australian university profits plummeted by $1.6 billion
to just $669 million. This operating surplus was the lowest since
2009, and represented an operating margin of just 1.9%, down from
6% in 2019.
