Australia's tertiary education sector is at a crossroads. With domestic enrolments declining, international student caps tightening, and students questioning degree ROI, universities and TAFEs face unprecedented pressure to transform. Yet amid these challenges lies opportunity — institutions that embrace digital innovation, AI-powered personalization, and collaborative models are positioning themselves to thrive. Keith Hawkes, Vice President Asia Pacific at Ellucian, shares insights on how Australian tertiary institutions are navigating this transformation and what the next decade holds for the sector.
How Would You Describe the Current State of Tertiary Education in Australia?
Institutions across Australia are in constant competition for students. Domestic enrolments have fallen sharply in recent years, as students question the return on investment of getting a degree. This challenge has been amplified by the rising number of major employers recruiting for well-paid roles that don’t require a degree.
At the same time, the financial landscape has shifted dramatically. Caps on international students have hit revenue streams hard, while performance-based funding has put many institutions under growing pressure to deliver value and better outcomes for students.
Despite these challenges, the sector has shown resilience and creativity in adapting to change to provide students who choose to go to university with meaningful and relevant learning experiences.
What Makes Australia’s Landscape Distinct?
Australia’s tertiary education landscape stands out due to its high concentration of large, globally ranked universities, dual-sector system with strong pathways between vocational and academic education, and exceptionally high proportion of international students.
Australian institutions are generally larger and fewer in number compared to many regions, with many ranking among the top globally on measures of academic quality and subject strengths. The Group of Eight (Go8) universities dominate national research output and attract a significant share of international students.
The landscape is shaped by a strong focus on employability, skill development, and adaptability in curriculum, often linking tertiary study closely to employer needs and current workforce trends. There is growing commitment to lifelong learning and practical, skills-based grading.
What are Some of the Key Trends Shaping the Future of Tertiary Education in Australia Right Now?
With more tertiary students per capita than any other developed nation, Australia is reshaping the sector to better fit with changing student expectations and the goals of the Australian Universities Accord, a blueprint for the future of tertiary education.
There is a growing realisation that a shift to more modular learning models that mirror the skills students need in the workforce are more relevant than a one and only fix of learning prior to a career starting.
We’ve seen institutions across Australia look at cutting costs by consolidating programs and aligning courses more closely with industry needs as a result, positioning themselves as lifelong learning partners to support students throughout their careers.
What are the Most Exciting Shifts You’re Seeing in How Institutions Are Embracing Digital Transformation?
A tide is turning on the way institutions use data and that’s really exciting. Staff are becoming much more aware of how powerful it can be to combine data that was once kept in standalone databases and systems to create a more hyper-personalised experience for students. This will be critical in students valuing their education and to reverse the trend of high dropout rates that blight some courses in the region.
The CIO’s role is now more strategic too. They are being brought into conversations about how an institution can evolve with EdTech as a driver, rather than just being the support vehicle for an institution’s existing processes. This is a significant shift and shows that digital is being placed at the heart of any transformation.
AI is transforming industries globally; how is it being adopted in Australia's tertiary education sector, and what are the implications?
Conversations about AI have quickly shifted from fears over cheating to exploring how this technology can help students succeed. Ethical-use policies have followed closely behind, helping to accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies across the region.
Large universities with hundreds of courses can use AI to identify overlapping content to help them consolidate their curriculum, maximise learning spaces, and design cost-effective hybrid or online programmes that are delivered in ways that students want to learn. It’s helping staff to track engagement and attendance patterns and flag students who may be at risk of falling behind so tutors can step in sooner to reduce attrition and improve outcomes.
Beyond teaching and learning, AI is slashing the administrative work that eats up staff time. From managing admissions to chatbots that answer student questions 24/7, these tools free up time so that the irreplaceable human judgement and decision-making can be prioritised in the places where they are needed most. It’s an exciting time for a sector starting to explore the possibilities of AI that were previously unimaginable.
Is Collaboration Across the Region Important to Advancing Tertiary Education?
The US leads the way when it comes to collaboration, but similar trends are emerging in Asia Pacific.
In the US, some of the largest projects have resulted in generated cumulative savings of hundreds of millions. These are the kind of figures that would make any institution around the world take notice and start thinking about how they could collaborate more effectively on services or course offerings.
In New Zealand, universities are often known for key specialisms. One might be veterinary medicine, another IT or microbrewing and teaching. They still offer other courses too, but the sector has realised that there is a huge opportunity for consolidation. By collectively specialising, these institutions can offer better-quality programs, cut duplication, and reduce costs.
While these partnerships are in their early stages, there is strong interest in expanding this kind of collaboration across the region.
Where Do You See the Biggest Opportunities for Innovation or Impact in the Sector?
As AI literacy becomes as a core academic skill, there is huge opportunity for innovation. Students want and need to understand how to use AI tools effectively, responsibly and ethically in the workplace and this is the direction of travel for tertiary education.
This shift also requires a rethink of how students are assessed, to evaluate their subject knowledge but also their technical ability and judgement in applying the technology in their careers.
The ability to personalise student pathways at scale will help universities attract and retain students by identifying exactly what skills and modules they need to study at each stage of their career to progress.
What’s One Major Shift You Foresee Over the Next 5–10 Years?
Australia’s tertiary education sector is set for significant transformation in the next decade, where there’ll be more collaboration, consolidation, and digital innovation.
The sector will need to embrace faster, shorter pathways to learning. Ones that can adapt at pace to the way the world and the workforce is changing.
Mergers and partnerships could give rise to super universities that combine industry and teaching expertise to create more flexible and comprehensive learning pathways for students into real world careers.
To achieve these ambitious goals, we will see the tertiary education sector increasingly move away from the processes and IT infrastructure that served them in the past to create campuses that are fully digitally connected and adaptable.
What’s Next for Ellucian in Australia: What Strategic Priorities and Innovations Are on the Horizon?
Ellucian’s focus is on helping universities across Australia to accelerate their digital transformation. We’ve built a suite of tools that allow them to be more agile and adapt quickly to help students and the wider institution succeed.
The SaaS technology behind Ellucian Student allows institutions to scale up at pace as needs change and ensure that the CIO’s focus can remain on driving change, not worrying how aging servers or security will adapt.
New developments on the horizon will ensure we can help institutions identify what modules students need to study to work in their desired role in industry. Students will be able to cherry-pick courses across an institution’s faculties to custom make their own pathway to success. So, someone wanting to work in the farming industry could easily combine modules in AI, business skills, and the agriculture sector, for example.
Technology moves at a rapid pace and partnering with Ellucian, which only focuses on the tertiary education sector and invests heavily in innovation, is crucial to meet the unique goals of each institution and to keep pace with a changing landscape.
Read more on how Ellucian Student can support your institution to deliver student success.
