Stronger links between TNE and research would boost innovation

This week’s visit to India by Australian ministers and vice-chancellors highlights the importance of the bilateral relationship to each country’s goals for education and research. It also highlights a huge opportunity to better connect transnational education (TNE) with our international research collaboration.

Australian universities are leading the way on new partnerships in India, following the country’s recent opening up to branch campuses. Deakin University and the University of Wollongong were the first overseas universities to set up campuses in Gift City in Gujarat, and now universities including Western Sydney, La Trobe and Victoria are establishing their own centres elsewhere in India.

A key part of this is a commitment to an inclusive model of education, broadening access and choice for students in both countries. But it is not just about undergraduate education. These universities have also been developing joint PhD programmes and are strengthening their existing research links in areas of mutual national priority. Australian universities recognise the critical importance of graduate employability, and as they forge stronger links with industry in India for their students, they are also exploring new opportunities for joint R&D.

Over the past decade, Australia’s research collaboration with India has grown faster than its collaboration with any other major partner country – and education ministers in both countries have noticed. India’s Dharmendra Pradhan has encouraged Australian universities, as they set up campuses in India, to build stronger connections with the Indian government’s new research Centres of Excellence. And this week Australia’s Jason Clare has announced a new framework for bilateral research collaboration, developed by the Australia-India Institute (disclaimer: I served on the steering committee for this project).

Australia’s new assistant minister for international education, Julian Hill, has outlined his desire to see a stronger connection between international education and research collaboration as he puts his stamp on the Australian government’s new strategic framework for international education, due to be finalised next year. This is a positive step and reflects the ways that universities are thinking about innovative models for the future.

At the same time, the Australian government has been undertaking a Strategic Examination of R&D throughout 2025 – the biggest review of the research and innovation system in more than 15 years. And its Department of Industry, Science and Resources is currently consulting on the potential benefits of associating to the European Union’s Horizon Europe research funding scheme.

Australia has some of the highest rates of international research collaboration in the world and derives great national benefit – in terms of talent, quality and impact – from this worldwide engagement. But we know that the global landscape for R&D is shifting. China has recently overtaken the US as the world’s leading producer of research output but new players are rising fast – focusing only on the US and China now means missing out on half of all global R&D. New patterns of collaboration and new opportunities are emerging.

Australia should be seizing opportunities for closer collaboration with partners in Europe but not if it means turning attention away from critical partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region. We should also recognise that different universities have different international priorities and profiles, and see this diversity as a strength. For example, the Group of Eight institutions tend to partner more with leading European countries and China, whereas India and the ASEAN countries are more of a focus for the universities in the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) network.

Australia’s extensive experience in all forms of TNE (including joint degree programmes and offshore campuses) is also a distinct strength and should be linked more clearly to our R&D strategy. New campuses in India broaden access and opportunity for students, and they also provide a vital hub for new research and innovation collaboration.

Across the IRU network, research collaboration with Indian partners has grown fivefold over the past decade and the quality and impact of this joint research is very high.

James Cook University, in Australia’s tropical north, provides an excellent example. It already has an overseas campus in Singapore and is leveraging its internationally recognised strengths in ecology, marine and earth sciences to expand collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, focusing on shared challenges of coastal ecosystems, water quality and blue carbon. This will lead to expanded opportunities for students and researchers and a stronger connection to Odisha’s recently inaugurated Marine Biotechnology Research and Innovation Corridor, which will benefit both countries.

The final report of the Strategic Examination of R&D is due to be presented to ministers before Christmas. So far it hasn’t had much focus at all on the national benefits of international collaboration. But the opportunities are clear.

Setting up our R&D system to maximise the benefit to Australia into the future requires an up-to-date understanding of our place in the world and the exciting opportunities that brings. By building on the distinct strengths, missions and international profiles of our universities – including our campuses around the Indo-Pacific region – Australia can boost its national innovation system by connecting it more explicitly to international and transnational education.

India’s research and innovation system is growing – and internationalising – fast. Australian universities see huge mutual benefit in new models of both TNE and transnational research. The Australian government should make this connection at the policy level as well.

Paul Harris is executive director of Innovative Research Universities (Australia).