Australian higher education is internationally competitive, yet domestically strained and politically contested. This paper examines how Australians perceive their universities and how those perceptions connect to democratic resilience – the capacity of a democratic system to sustain informed participation, institutional trust, social inclusion and collective learning. Three findings are especially salient for democratic resilience.

This paper examines democracy as a resilient system, emphasising the role of applied analysis in shaping effective policy and programs, particularly in Australia. It proposes a practical agenda centred on three core strengthening flows of democratic resilience: trusted institutions, credible information and social inclusion.