How the war is upending travel + is campus culture dead?

0:00This is a Triple J podcast. Every billionaire is a douchebag. Parliament is a sick place. So I thought, oh my god, I might be an alcoholic. Obviously, I'm inadequate. Yes, I think so. That's not what I'm saying. Who's the prime minister? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. OK. The news out of the Middle East is not getting any better. Both Iranian and American officials are warning of more attacks. The US saying the worst is yet to come. And so many people are stranded overseas and they're trying to get back to Australia. G'day, it's Dave Marcazi with you for hack. Coming up, we're going to have the latest on Iran and we'll be speaking with some of those trying to get home. If you have got a trip booked soon, I'm also keen to hear how you're feeling with all of this chaos. Have you canceled your trip? You're still going on your holiday. I'll be worried about what is to come. We're going to be talking all of that very soon. Later, the Tilly's fans who really do not want to be disturbed right now. If I told my boss, I don't care.

1:00I'm going to the Tilly's games. I'm taking the whole of March off. Yeah, we're going to have an update there, first low. Hack. Whoever said you need to lit your alarm, people say, oh, you make friends for life at uni. Grab the only friend I meet is depression. Untriple J. Yeah, I want to know how you would rate your university experience. I'm talking about the on-campus stuff, not really the learning situation, the social elements. If you're still a student, do you hang out on campus? Do you feel like it is easy enough to meet friends? A lot has changed, and people have big thoughts on this. I want to hear yours, message N-O-439757-Triple-5. We know online learning has changed a lot for students, but some are saying the uni life that they're living and that they're paying for is not the golden experience they were sold. Scout Wallens got more from Tasmania. Moving three hours from hometown, yeah, where I didn't know anyone was, I mean, a big step.

2:01Elijah Anderson had big hopes when he moved from regional tazzy to Hobart for uni. I think what I was expecting was a very vibrant community. You like the movies. You see, like, in American movies, they have these big front houses and whatever. You just see there's big parties always happening. At first, Elijah enjoyed campus life. He went to lectures in person, hung out with his new mates after classes and signed up for a footsal team, but then COVID hit. At first, it was pretty cool. Didn't have to go to campus. He says his course has never returned to full-earned person. After a while, I got pretty old, and it was quite challenging to, in some cases, be motivated to learn. And the records he never really got to know his classmates, either. I don't have many, if any, friends that I made after going online. His experience was also shaped by needing to work full-time to cover in and basic living costs. He also had to cut back to part-time study. My memory of uni is that it was like so much fun. It was the best time of your life.

3:02Jeanette Wright went to the same uni as Elijah, but 30 years earlier. She lived in on-campus accommodation and studied medicine. She reckoned she had 35 contact hours a week. Everyone just went to uni and then just sort of milled around the university. And the uni bar was like a central place. And beer's cost $1, rent was cheap. Your job was to be here, the adulting world, and the rest of life was sort of going to happen after that. Obviously, COVID is a big variable here. But if you look at uni state, is the study experience better or worse than in the 90s? Campus life has really changed. The National Tertiary Education Union's Alison Barnes reckons the answer is clear. It's worse. We see students facing a cost of living pressures and particularly after COVID, when lots of teaching shifted online, we've seen that change in campus lifestyle. According to a 2024 National Student Experience Survey, 76% of undergrad students at Australian Uni said they had a positive education experience at university.

4:06But only 58% said they had a positive peer engagement experience. If students have poor experiences, obviously it's going to impact on their decision to drop out. Alison Barnes says a big part of it is the move to online classes. Online resources can enhance the student experience. What we get concerned about, however, is when online teaching and online resources are used as a way to drive down and cut costs. Jack Oadsprior is another Hobart uni student. He's studying at UTAS, and he's also the student association president. The culture of university on campus during the 80s, 90s, 2000s, which then students like myself have been kind of sold on of this kind of golden age of universities. I certainly don't think that that's a top priority of the universities at the moment. He says even courses that are officially offered in person have a lot of elements that are online. This is a sometimes pretty disconnective student experience.

5:06I asked the University of Tasmania about all of this and they sent me a statement. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor Daily Brown told me universities have three times the number of students now compared to the 90s and the flexibility of studying online has been critical in making that work. She also said face-to-face classes are supported by online resources, but she said isn't about saving money because it costs just as much as in-person learning. She also pointed out that regional uni's like UTAS have a student body that is just more likely to want to study online. What you miss is all the little side conversations that happen, like waving to someone and saying, oh, let's catch up at the uni bar or let's see. But you know, you've actually just missed all of that. Virginia, she reckoned she went to uni in Australia during the Golden Age. And as for Elijah, who's now in his 20s, well, he reckons she's right. I didn't hate online learning. It just wasn't the same experiences what I was expecting. Hack on Triple J. Scoutwollen reporting there from Tasmania. I'm hearing a lot of people's experiences on the text line now.

6:09Someone says, I'm in my second year of my masters. The online space is awful. During my bachelors, which was pre-COVID, it was so much fun. Another person says, my first year of uni was fully online. Even when we could go back in person, most of my units just stayed online and Anna saying, I'm a current student. Uni life is really isolating. Online classes make it hard. You make friends in one class and then you never see them again. Yeah, I want to know how widespread this is because we were hearing about the experiences in Tasmania. But Felix Hughes is the president of the National Union of Students. He's based in Melbourne, but covers the whole country. Felix, thanks so much for your time. Thanks for having me. Is campus life something that's brought up a lot with you? Absolutely it is. Campuses feel different. There are fewer students hanging out between classes. Campuses are busy during lectures and then much quiet outside of them. And even though we're seeing events till happen, they're more concentrated around the major weeks

7:10like orientation. Rather than being consistent throughout semester. And the everyday buzz that we're often explained about by our parents just isn't there anymore. Yeah, is it hard to also get people involved in extra curricular stuff? Like when there is stuff maybe, is it a bit more difficult to get people interested because there isn't that ongoing culture of hanging out together and socialising? I think there really is an interest in socialising and hanging out together. But the simple part is students just can't afford to. Students are having to look at the moment at choosing between rents and groceries between their car and getting to their degree. So when things like income support from the government haven't kept up with cost of living, students are having to work more hours to make ends meet. And when you're balancing work and study just to cover your basic expenses, staying back for a club meeting or an event just isn't always realistic. How important is this social part of uni life? It is one of the key factors

8:12of why people go to university. Campus culture improves mental health. It reduces isolation and it builds whole communities. We want to engage with students. We want to meet more students. We want those opportunities to meet more students. But when we can't do it, when we can't afford to do it and there's events aren't there, students are really left out. Do you think Felix that a lot of it has to do with the aftermath of COVID? It's still like it has been a few years now, but things have not really normalized yet or that people's behaviors have changed in the wake of all of that stuff. I actually don't think so, although that is what we hear a lot. I think there's two main parts. The first is the cost of living. And the second is actually being able to have those events on campus. When we see campus culture, it's not just buildings or campaigns. It's actually student-run clubs and societies. It's festivals, it's sport competition. It's student media, it's welfare spaces. And those are funded and coordinated by student unions.

9:12So what we've seen since really voluntary student unionism which cut student union funding is that student organizations just aren't able to put on as much festivals as much events they're used to. And with not being able to do that, comes this opportunities for students to get involved. And if you want vibrant campuses that actually have a really positive culture, you have to properly fund the groups that create them. This is Harkham Dave Marcazi. I'm speaking with Felix Hughes, who's president of the National Union of Students. And we're speaking about campus life and the culture on campus, how it's changed over the years and why a lot of students are saying they wish they were getting more. Thank for their buck maybe. They're paying money to be at uni and to be part of that culture, but maybe it's not living up to all of their expectations. Felix, do you often hear about the years gone by? You mentioned, you know, stuff that your parents are telling you. Does it get annoying when people are saying, oh, it was so much better back then. It absolutely does. We hear all these things about live music events and festivals where students would go to class

10:13and then leave class and just hang out with their friends because there's something happening at that time on campus. And we hear, no matter what day it is, no matter what week you can go to your lecture, go to your tutorial and then go over to the grass and there'll be some kind of live music or a band you can go join. And when there's strong, well-funded events, students do show up. And Felix, any advice to students who might be feeling a bit isolated or maybe they're just a bit nervous about hanging around on campus socially about getting involved? Go join a club or a society or some organisation on campus. They are absolutely where you'll make your best friends. They are passionate groups of young people that really just want to engage with each other. And there's so many opportunities when you know where to look for them and even though it may not be as it once was where you can just step outside of your classroom and you see all these festivals, there are still spaces when we look for it, which are run by student unions. Well, thank you so much for having a chat with us. Felix Hughes, president of the National Union of Students, really appreciate your time. Thanks so much, Dave. And so many messages on this one.

11:15Someone says, I finished uni in 2022 and people did not want to hang out after classes finished. Another person says, I'm about to graduate with a master's degree without attending a single class. I work full-time and catch up on study after work. Wow, that's extraordinary. Someone else says, I reckon the more elite the university, the less they care about building a student community. And someone else says, I've just finished a five-year degree. It was supposed to include in-person and online classes, but the amount of online content increased massively. I absolutely hated it. And I felt extremely isolated. Matthew is in Sydney and he's actually a student experience manager. That's his title. And he has messaged us saying, it's no surprise that young people aren't turning up on campus as much these days. Students are actively making that conscious decision every time they come into campus. Because they have to spend money on transport and food. So it's tossing up whether or not campus actually feels worth it. We're focusing on designing campus,

12:17so it is becoming more accessible for students to belong, subsidising events, so it's more affordable for them, providing affordable food options so they don't have to decide between Spotify or having lunch on that day. It has to be intentional, it has to be affordable, and it has to be worth it time. Yeah, we got a lot more messages coming through. Some people acknowledging that online working has actually made things easier for a lot of people from regional areas or perhaps people with disability. Someone else says, I did my diploma of nursing at TAFE, made so many friends. But then when I went to do my bachelor's at uni, I have no friends, which is interesting. And then someone else, Dave and Barcelona in Spain, says the unique experience for me was pretty underwhelming that studying abroad was the best thing I ever did. So maybe that's the advice of GovZ. Huck, more than 100,000 Australians are in the region in what's become an extremely volatile environment. On Triple J. Yeah, the threats are escalating as war rages on in the Middle East

13:18and Iranian official threatening to set fire to ships. While the US Secretary of State says the hardest hits on Iran are yet to come. And as all of this plays out, airlines around the world have been forced to cancel flights, impacting thousands of people, stranded in airports, sharing hotel rooms. Is this you or someone you know? Are you planning to go overseas soon? Or maybe you're thinking about canceling now a message in, 0439757355. Alessandro Lonnie has been staying on top of everything going down. So I'm stuck in today. I'll especially leave at 10 a.m. this morning, but I've got a message around 3 4 a.m. saying that my flat has been cancelled. On TikTok right now, there's heaps of people posting about getting stranded. Monica is an Australian content creator who's in Dubai right now. I already knew it was going to be cancelled because the airport's not open like, bro, how can I leave the country with the airport is closed and it's getting hit by missiles? Over the past few days, a bunch of the world's busiest travel hubs

14:20have ground to a standstill. What a nightmare travel there. Still stuck in Dubai. Airports, including the United Arab Emirates cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, were shut down as they became the target of Iranian strikes in retaliation for the country hosting foreign military bases. So many emergency alerts. We've seen the missiles with our old guys. Millions of passengers transit through major Middle Eastern airports each year, including through countries like Qatar, Q8, and Bahrain. While a very small number of flights did resume today, looking at the flight tracking site, flight radar 24, it's mostly empty over the major hubs. Because basically all of the Middle East right now is in no flight though. Thinking of going through Australia, back to the US, and then having another connecting flight. A lot of international airport in Doha is crazy right now. Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says it's uncharted territory. In this crisis, it is the hubs that we would usually rely on in a crisis that are in crisis, rather than being the solution. All up, there are 115,000 Australians in the Middle East

15:23with a lot of them start awaiting to try to safely get home. Penny Wong spoke to officials from the United Arab Emirates this morning. The UAE says Australians impacted are being accommodated and providing meals. No baggage, no one can tell a sentence at all. David is from Melbourne, and was heading to Europe for a holiday when his plane diverted to a man. He's sharing a hotel room with his friend and another stranded passenger from Russia. Sort of even just to get out bags and things like that. And he reckons he'll be waiting until Saturday for a flight. There's definitely lots of people like wearing the same clothes every day and needing their medication and things like that. America and Israel's war on Iran is in its fourth day. This morning, their explosions over to Iran. After Israel flagged, it would strike the city and target Iran's state broadcaster. Iran has hit a major gas plant in Qatar and an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. It's also closed the vital shipping lane at the Strait of Hormuz. The regime is also threatening to attack vessels

16:24through the Strait of Hormuz, jeopardizing global oil supplies and shipments. We call on Iran to cease these actions. It was also confirmed today that an airbase used by Australian nearby was hit by Iranian drones. The Australian government says no one was hurt. This was our last best chance to strike. Donald Trump also spoke today. The first time since ordering the large-scale attacks last week, the US President campaigned on ending long wars overseas. This is what he's saying now. An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people. Donald Trump told some US media he's not ruling out US troops being deployed to Iran too. He's also putting a time estimate on the war in a way. We projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that. His Secretary of War, Pete Hegsf, is drawing a comparison. This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both.

17:24On a normal day, 11,000 Australians move through the region's big airports. The Deputy Prime Minister Richard Miles says the government is working on potential fixes. Fastest flights to regime will be commercial options, but we are, I can assure you, working for a range of contingencies right now. While Makalia Cash from the opposition says the government should do more. It is clear here that the government does need to step up its game and do more to communicate with Australians on the ground. This is HACC on Triple J. Ali Angeloni reporting now and hearing from you on the text line right now, a lot of people with different travel experiences. Someone says, I was supposed to be flying from Sydney to Abu Dhabi to London this Friday. I've cancelled my flight due to the conflict and I've decided to book a flight that stops in Singapore instead in a week's time. Okay, that's interesting. Another person saying, my sister got married on the weekend and has had to cancel a honeymoon to Egypt today. Which is, you know, obviously, really big thing. A lot of people having their plans disrupted,

18:26a lot of flights cancelled. If you're impacted, message N-0439-757-Triple-5. With us now is Dean Long. He's the CEO of the Australian Travel Industry Association. G'day Dean, thanks for joining us on HACC. Do we know how many Australians kind of overseas at the moment or stuck in the Middle East? Yeah, look, the numbers are pretty large. We've got about 11,000 people a day at the moment that are being impacted. We reckon there's about 8,000 impacted travelers across Europe and the Middle East at the moment. That number won't get too much bigger if we get some open air space, but it could get bigger as more people can't get home from Europe. So there's a few factors going in there, but there's been a figure that's been rolling around saying 115,000 people are stuck in the Middle East. That number's actually the number of people that live in the Middle East, Australians that live there. So it's really important we get some of those numbers right. We're in the tens of thousands, not in the multitudes at the moment,

19:27but it will get bigger the longer it goes on. Okay, so it may not be as huge as we could be reading. I did see that 115,000 figure earlier today. I mean, what are your options? When you're in a situation like this, Dean, or maybe if you've got a trip that's coming up, like you were supposed to go on holiday later this week or next week, should you be thinking about canceling or waiting for your airline to get in touch with you? Look, it's the best advice that you've just given your listeners there, making sure that if you are planning to travel in the next little bit, do not cancel. You should wait for the airline to cancel your trip. That's going to guarantee you get your money back or that they can re-book you at an appropriate time with no additional fees and no fare differential. So it doesn't matter how nervous you are, it's just really important that you don't cancel. Wait for the airline to do that and then have those options made available to you. Now, the three big Middle Eastern carriers that are impacted in a significant way are Emirates, Eddie Hadden, Qatar.

20:30Those three carriers at the moment have some great cancellation policies if you're traveling in the next three days that they'll give you that money back as a full refund. And that's something you need to be talking to you and if you use an ATM member that's a travel agent or a tour operator or you've booked directly with the airline, look really carefully at that fine print before you try to be nice to an airline and cancel your trip. Okay, that's really interesting. We're hearing from so many people, Dean, someone says I'm getting married in two weeks. Our honeymoon was also meant to be in Egypt after saving for both the wedding and a big trip we're really devastated. We can only hope that we get travel credits or a refund. This is Haqqam, Dave Markezi. I'm speaking with Dean Long, the CEO of the Australian Travel Industry Association talking about all this travel chaos really. There are people stranded or trying to get home planning their holidays or canceling their holidays. Dean, what kind of pressure is all of this putting on the hubs in Asia like Singapore, Bangkok, those airports?

21:31Yeah, look, the hubs to Asia are the only ones that are open at the moment and that's having a massive impact on the prices that people are paying. If you haven't already got a ticket, we've seen price increases in between 50 and 107% of what increase on where they were prior to this. They are full and I think that's something people need to be really aware of. That poor listener that's got a trip in two weeks to Egypt, there is no cheap flight any more that's going to get you to Egypt unless the Middle Eastern airspace reopens. It will have a significant impact. It's going to continue to have that impact. And that's one of the reasons why, if you do not cancel, you'll get your money back, but it is going to have an impact on the rest of your trip where you're going to be at the behest of those other supplies to operators, hotel companies to give you that money back. A lot of people are asking about things like insurance, what to do there to be making sure they're reading the fine print.

22:32I mean, the other thing, Dean, is also the real kind of fear that people might have even if these routes do reopen in the Middle East, people might not want to be traveling for a while. Look, I think there's something which for a few people will be nervous about. I think one of the things that we are really good at as Australians is having a very quick resilience to travel. We love to travel. We trust in those major businesses that get us to and from our great destinations. So we don't expect there to be a huge hangover effect from it. I think fundamentally, if you're going to get some cheap air fares on one of those Middle Eastern carries, we spoke about people will start booking those pretty quickly. But some people we're going, you know, what I'm going to go through Asia from now on. And that's where I'm going to go because that's going to make me feel more comfortable. One of the things you mentioned in your question there is about travel insurance. Look, at the moment, travel insurance is like most insurances, acts of war, void that policy. And so if you're listening to this and you're overseas, there's a nuance you must know is that

23:34you will be out of pocket for any of the costs that you're experiencing due to the disruption. So if you're in Europe now and you're having to pay additional fees for your hotel and food, travel insurance isn't going to cover you for that. However, let's say that you go to cross the road and you roll your ankle and you've got to go to hospital, you still have that travel insurance, that travel insurance will still look after you while you're there. Interesting. You must tell them your trip has been extended. So getting contact with your travel insurance company, say that you've been delayed, most travel insurance companies are allowing free extensions for impacted customers but getting contact with them to maintain that cover. No, good advice there. Thank you so much, Dean Long, from the Australian Travel Industry Association, really appreciate your time. It's great to be with you. And we got a lot of messages still coming through. Someone says my travel plans to Jordan have been delayed. However, I feel extremely privileged that this is my biggest problem right now.

24:34Okay, we're going to move on. Hack. The Matilda's a Scranias Women's National Team in Perth for the opening game of AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026. Triple J. Yeah, there are a few teams that bring Australia together like the Tilly's, right? And the Matilda's are back in the spotlight right now kicked off their Asian Cup campaign against the Philippines in Perth on Sunday. And a lot of people were watching tens of thousands. Maybe you were one of them. Message N-O-439757 Triple V. This could be the last chance for this generation of Matilda's to win a big international trophy but the Asian Cup isn't just a big deal for the team. It's also a massive deal for the fans as Jackson Worthington's been finding out. If I told my boss, I don't care. I'm going to the Tilly's games. I'm taking the whole of March off. I'll be back afterwards. Amy lives in Noosa and she's a mad football fan. I played soccer growing up since I was, I think, four or five years old

25:38and I loved it. It was me and my best friend and a team of all boys and we just loved it. A few years ago when the Women's World Cup came to Australia, she was stuck at work. My whole workplace just stopped. No one was ordering food. No one was working. It just stopped. And we had a small tiny TV in my work. There's about 20, 30 people outside standing there watching the small TV screen and it was like the world just stopped and it was honestly such an amazing moment. I think about it all the time and it always makes me happy, makes me smile. This year for the Asian Cup, she wasn't going to let that happen again. She plans to be at every single Matilda's game, including the opening match of the tournament against the Philippines in Perth. I'd go anywhere to watch them. So how many hours on a plane jerk are you going to spend for this tournament? Ah, quite a bit. Because I know the flight over to Perth is about five hours. So it's like 10 hours and then an hour and a half down to Sydney. That's another three hours. And then if they make the finals, I'm going to go to finals as well.

26:38MUSIC MUSIC The Matilda's kicked off the Asian Cup campaign with a one-neil win over the Philippines in Perth on Sunday. Thanks to her goal from hometown hero, Sam Kerr. Rising at the back, it's not a game I've put in up ahead of Sam Kerr. Sam Kerr, it just had to be. To do it here at Perth, it's extra special. And yeah, to do it in the Asian Cup was nice. So it was nice to get the win, nice to be at home and the weather was good too. The Matilda's next challenge is a match against a run on Thursday on the goal coast before rounding out their group stage against South Korea in Sydney on Sunday. Kerr, who miss most of the women's well-cup through injury, told reporters after the game that the team isn't getting ahead of themselves. Everyone comes here to win, but we're just taking it one game at a time. Today was a good start and there's lots of belief within the team, but as you see today, there's a lot of quality teams in the Asian Cup, so you have to take one game at a time.

27:39This is a big tournament for the Matilda's. It's also a big opportunity for women's football in Australia. Last year, a report from the Players Association found a large number of a league women's players had experienced psychological distress. At the time, Perth Glory Captain and Players Association delegate is he Dalton told HACC. The Asian Cup was a chance for football Australia to capitalize on the support for the Matilda's to change things for the better. If we miss it, it's just going to keep going downhill. I think you're going to see more and more players leaving and it's a shame because there's so much talent here. It's such a beautiful country to play football in. And for fans like Amy, the opportunity to watch this generation of players when a trophy at home means a lot. When I was playing, like I said, I was me and my best friend in the team of all boys. And now I see so many teams of just little girls because they can look up to these players that are now shown all throughout the media. And just in case, her mom's already bought tickets to the final. Yes, she's a bit ambitious in both services. It'll be great to see the tillies in the finals, obviously.

28:39But I think it'll just be so cool to see a final. HACC on Triple J. Jackson Worthington reporting there and lots of messages coming through. Someone says we need our Matilda's to renew, to rebuild us. Somebody else Leo saying, I was wondering about the Iranian football team currently in Australia today. Stay here until it becomes safe to return home. It would be insane, probably impossible to return right now. Yeah, I mean, it'd be so hard. We're also hearing from people about the Iran story, the travel chaos that people are experiencing. It's some people are saying, look, I'm just lucky that I'm not in a dangerous situation. So I don't care about my holiday, which is true. And, you know, it's a fair enough thing to say. We will keep you across the updates in Iran over the next few days, because I imagine that will be the lead story for the rest of the week. But that is all we've got time for on HACC on the other side.