How does Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» protect Australia’s interests when collaborating with international researchers?
To remain globally relevant Australia needs to continue to balance open and collaborative research with protecting the nation’s interests.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» complies with relevant Australian government requirements, including its responsibilities under the Defence and Strategic Goods list and Foreign Influence Transparency scheme. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» works collaboratively with many parts of the Government, and across the sector, to ensure Australia’s best interests are achieved.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» recognises the need to remain and increase its vigilance going forward, and has welcomed the (UFIT) to provide greater certainty around international research relationships. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» Vice-Chancellor Peter Høj has been chosen by the Government to be a member of the steering group, as well as having been a Defence Ministerial appointment to the .
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» is Australia’s leading university when it comes to commercialising intellectual property through UniQuest, which benchmarks in the top 10 per cent globally. More than 100 companies have been founded and 300 US patents granted.
How does Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» respond to speculation that Australian AI research is being misused?
AI and data science is a huge focus for industry, government and research around the world.
The potential benefits of this technology in tackling global challenges are enormous but we need to ensure that the necessary policies and ethics are in place around its application.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» does not condone the misuse of its research and would be very uncomfortable if this was the case.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» works proactively with the Australian Government through the (UFIT) and to ensure it remains vigilant and to provide greater certainty around international research relationships.
Is Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» compliant with the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme?
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» is aware of its obligations under the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme (FITS). Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» considers that it has complied with its obligations, and will continue to monitor those obligations, under the FITS.
It should be remembered that communication activities requiring registration under the FITS are those that are undertaken, solely or substantially, for the purpose of political or government influence. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» does not consider that the activities of the Confucius Institute in the agreement fall within the type of activities requiring registration under the FITS.
As we renegotiate the agreement governing the Institute, compliance with FITS will be front of mind, as will the University’s commitment to institutional autonomy and academic freedom.
Has Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» Vice-Chancellor’s engagement with China been appropriate?
The Vice-Chancellor has always been transparent about his engagements with China, and at all times has acted with integrity and autonomy, and in the interest of his employers and Australia.
The Vice-Chancellor is on the record, as Chairman of the Group of Eight universities in 2017, saying that any political pressure from China would be unacceptable.
In his role, the Vice-Chancellor engages with many Australian and international government and business leaders, including President Obama who delivered a presentation at Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» in 2014 - the first time a sitting US President had ever done so.
The Vice-Chancellor has served on more than 35 Australian government committees and education and industry boards, including the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council, CSIRO and Lead Vice-Chancellor for Research for Universities Australia.
His immense contribution, over more than three decades, to the higher education and research sector continues to be recognised. In the past year alone, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the Australia Day awards (in which his role with Hanban was explicitly mentioned), received the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Asia-Pacific Leadership Award and earned the prestigious fellowship of the (NAI) in the United States.
Recently, the Vice-Chancellor signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ramsay Centre to fund a new program in Western Civilisation.
The Vice-Chancellor believes that such relationships, across a broad base, is what a global top 50 university must do, in the strategic and economic interests of both Australia and the University.
Why was Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Høj AC, a consultant on Hanban’s committee?
Hanban, an affiliation of the Chinese Ministry of Education, invited Professor Høj to be a non-paid consultant on November 2013. His appointment was included on the Vice-Chancellor’s public biography and publicised on Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» News. Professor Høj was appointed a regional delegate on the Confucius Institute Council in November 2017.
The positions allowed the Vice-Chancellor to stress the importance of operating relationships in accordance with established Australian institutional values and procedures. These views were received and debated constructively.
Professor Peter Høj resigned from Hanban in late 2018.
What is the economic importance of international students?
Education is , generating more than $34b annual income and 240,000 jobs in Australia. Many of the jobs created are outside of universities.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» has the fifth highest international student fee income in Australia. About 18,000 of our 53,000 students are from overseas. In 2018, they contributed $570m in tuition fees alone, more than the University received in income from the larger Australian undergraduate cohort.
Last year, we had approximately 9000 Chinese students choosing to join our University community.
An external report found that three international students at Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» generate $1m for the Queensland economy.
What is Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» doing to mitigate financial risks?
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» is in a sound financial position, with a consolidated surplus of $72.7m in 2018 – up from $47.6m in 2017. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» takes a prudent approach to income from international students, investing it in infrastructure to benefit all students, rather than relying on it for recurrent expenditure and salaries.
Planning for, and managing risk, is a standard part of any large organisation’s operations. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» acknowledges the importance of diversifying the mix of international source countries through a focus on partnerships, engagement and recruitment in emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Latin America.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» will also continue its commitment to increasing non-government research funding from industry and international sources, as well as income from philanthropy.