The New Social Contract E0: What does COVID-19 mean for universities?

What does COVID-19 mean for universities?

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'The New Social Contract' is a podcast that examines how the relationship between universities, the state and the public might be reshaped as we live through this global pandemic.

Universities have existed for close to a thousand years. Across the centuries they have been places for making sense of the world and for shaping it.

But it would be a mistake to see universities as static and unchanging.

Under the pressures of war, political rupture and social and economic demands, they’ve often been remade. So, is this what we’re experiencing now, as COVID-19 rips through our lives?

The higher education sector is facing long-lasting financial and academic stress, with lost international student fee revenue alone projected at up to $15 billion. Meanwhile our students are looking at a future in which they bear the costs both of this pandemic and the continuing ecological crisis.

What will they demand of universities as they make lives in a very different kind of world?

The uncertainty is making it difficult for everyone, university leaders, academics and students. 'The New Social Contract’ seeks to contribute to a conversation about the kind of higher education sector our society needs. By using the lens of the past, present (and even the future), it will investigate what the public can legitimately demand of their universities, and how higher education in Australia might be remade.

The series is hosted by Associate Professor Tamson Pietsch, an expert in the history and politics of universities.