Looking Back on 2025... and Ahead to 2026

When we sat down to record this episode, it felt a bit like opening a time capsule from twelve months ago and asking, “So, how wrong were we?”

At the end of 2024, Dirk predicted a country divided into two halves, pre-election and post-election, with migration politics sitting right in the middle of it all. I went the other way and suggested life in the sector might simply slide back to “normal”. In this end-of-year wrap for 2025, we revisit those predictions, look at what actually happened, and try our luck again for 2026.

We start with the big structural shifts that have shaped the year. The ESOS bill, national code changes and constant migration rhetoric have all put pressure on different corners of the sector, from public universities with level one allocations to ELICOS, colleges and private VET providers, whose backs are firmly against the wall. At the same time, purpose-built student accommodation has been booming, TNE has become the new frontier, and TAFE has suddenly become the star of a lot more domestic conversations than it used to.

In this episode we get into:

• Policy and politics: ESOS reforms, looming national code changes in early 2026, and why migration is still the easiest lever for politicians to pull, even when the public seems tired of the debate.

• Winners and strugglers: Why public universities feel relatively comfortable, while ELICOS providers, English-only colleges and parts of private VET are staring down some real pain.

• Higher education shake-ups: From the UniSA and University of Adelaide merger and restructures at Western Sydney, to the quiet turbulence inside a range of institutions that do not always make the headlines.

• New builds and new bets: Edith Cowan’s striking new CBD campus in Perth and the broader re-shaping of the city, plus the rapid expansion of TNE in India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and what “TNE done well” actually has to look like.

• TAFE and the domestic pivot: The rise of trades, free or fully subsidised TAFE places, and why parents, students and careers advisers are talking about vocational routes in a very different way.

• AI hype and reality: Rob's prediction that we are heading into a disillusionment phase for AI, even as something genuinely game-changing is likely to land in the next twelve months, especially in video and teaching.

  
  

We also take a moment to look behind the microphones. Dirk opens up about the growth of The Koala News, from a gap he spotted in the market to a fully fledged independent news outlet with hundreds of thousands of views and 1.4 million events on the site this year, and why he launched a supporters campaign to keep independent media healthy.

And because it would not be a Global Horizons wrap without a bit of chaos, we finish with our annual outtakes reel.

Global Horizons is a production of The Global Society, Australia’s Learning Abroad support company. Our editor is Len Zamora and our distribution specialist is Angelo Ablao. Rob Malicki is the executive editor and host. The podcast wouldn’t be possible without The Koala News, Australia’s international education news website. This episode is supported by Choosing Your Uni, Australia's unique, AI-powered platform that helps domestic and international students to find the right institution for them, and that helps Australian institutions to access new markets.

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