The Australian government aims to move research funding from student fees to commercial partnerships and will fund short courses to upgrade skills. Further, the Morrison government will inject $1bn into university research to forestall damage to the sector caused by the drop in international students. An additional 50,000 online short courses will also be introduced, as aforementioned, by spending $251.8m between now and June 2022. Alongside this, the government will also spend $5.8 million on new partnerships between other universities and industries and opportunities for investments. The budget hopes to avoid lasting damage to the research sector and ensure research remains an important platform for economic recovery. The number of international students starting new courses in July 2020 fell by 45% compared to the previous year, while the Group of Eight (Go8) universities have warned 4,000 researchers’ contracts are due to expire at the end of the year. The Go8 includes Australia’s top universities that conduct about 70% of Australia’s university research.