Alejandra Gaitan Barrera

In 2021, when I was 19, I moved from Mexico to Austin, Texas, to be with my mom. It was a big decision, but I believed living with my mom would allow me to pursue my dream of finishing my nursing degree, which I had put on hold in Mexico. Unfortunately, college was an expense I couldn’t afford, and I struggled to find a job. I decided to move to Michigan to figure out how to make ends meet. She welcomed me into her home, taught me how to drive, and helped me find a job.

Globally higher education currently operates in a highly volatile and uncertain environment, with frequent shifts and pivotal changes as the norm rather than the exception. This new strategic context brings to the fore a set of interconnected challenges for Australian universities.

In the last decade, employment outcomes have become the most salient measure of success for Australian universities’ educational missions. This shift is evident by the emergence, rapid proliferation, and increasing prominence of metrics such as the national Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS) and global indicators like the QS Employment  Outcomes and the Times Higher Education-published Global Employability University Ranking, to list a few.