Universities Australia has ramped up its "Universites Matter" campaign, with advertisements on broadcast TV. The advertisement depicts research helping Australian health and industry. There is no direct mention of recent government moves to restrict the numbers of international students, but clearly the campaign is being run in response.
Half jokingly I had previously suggested dressing students in high visibility vests and medical scrubs and show them building houses and caring for the aged, which is essentially what this campaign is does. Universities have been relatively restrained in response to government restrictions on international students. Campaigns by industries such as mining, when threatened by government action, have been far more direct. Government members and ministers will have made a careful political calculation that votes from being seen to cracking down on foreigners will play well with the electorate. Universites, I suggest, need to remind voters that it is themselves, their friends and families, who will suffer as a result, from loss of jobs, income and services.
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