The Summer that Was – 24 Jan

Peter Høj (Uni Adelaide) and David Lloyd (Uni SA) rule themselves out to be the inaugural VC of Adelaide University, the merged institution they are currently co-creating. Very wise. If Lloyd stayed on, all the ex Uni Adelaide people would have called it an SA takeover. The reverse if Høj did. The pair will spend this year finishing the merger for a ’26 opening.

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The long-awaited membership of the government’s University Governance Council is announced. Education Minister Jason Clare promised a body to advise State and Federal Ministers given, “there have been far too many examples of universities underpaying staff and failing their responsibilities as employers.”  The ten member council will be a ministry of all the talents. Government nominated members are Melinda Cilento (CEO, Committee for Economic Development of Australia) as chair. Member Sharan Burrow, is described by the government as “a global advocate for human and labour rights and climate action” without mention of her former presidency of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. They are joined by corporate lawyer Bruce Cowley, a former acting chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast.

Organisations with seats at the table,  * University Chancellors Council * Australian Institute of Company Directors * Governance Institute of Australia * Australian Indigenous Governance Institute * Law Council of Australia * Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency and * Universities Australia.

The National Tertiary Education Union and National Union of Students are not on it but their “nominated expert(s)  will “participate.”

But what of the $1.45m (what outgoing Uni Melbourne VC Duncan Maskell was paid) question? A council focus will be, “ensuring rigorous and transparent processes for developing remuneration policies and settings for senior university staff.” This does not sound like actually setting pay scales, which had been widely assumed what the Council would do.

In FC this morning, university staff lobbies want more worker control of university managements. They are not getting it.

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The echo of the echo of the baby boom is resounding at Queensland universities. The states tertiary admission centre reports making 47,100 offers to study, “a remarkable” 8.8% increase.

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FC’s first Mean-Spirited management Award for 2025 goes to the University of Sydney for not paying Tracy West her super.  According to Fair Work Commissioner Crawford, Ms West was a long-time fixed-term contract worker who left when the research team (dementia) she works in moved to Macquarie U. She asked, and asked about her superannuation before leaving but the university only responded after. This meant she could not use the dispute settling procedures in the university’s Enterprise Agreement. Commissioner Crawford states this prevents the FWC dealing with the matter – why is worth quoting;

“I am very uncomfortable about my conclusion in this case. I consider it results in style prevailing over substance. Ms West clearly took steps to try and confirm whether she would receive her long service leave entitlements before her employment ended. It is also abundantly clear that any further steps Ms West took to resolve her dispute with the university would have been unsuccessful given the university is maintaining Ms West is not entitled to pro rata long service leave and is attempting to force Ms West to use a court instead of the commission.”

Commissioner Crawford adds that he considers, the university, “treated Ms West unfairly by not disclosing its position on Ms West’s long service leave before her employment ended,” and suggests it pay her super.

FC asked Uni Sydney if it was going to do so and a spokesperson replied it, “is currently considering the Commissioner’s recommendation.”

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The second pillar (unless it is a goal) of the University of the Sunshine Coast’s new strategic plan is “people first.” Number one is “transformative student experience,” but how will the university know when they are achieved? There are few, if any hard numbers in “measures of success,” which are mainly aspirational. The first KPI for student experience is “teaching quality, overall satisfaction and graduate outcomes” which can mean whatever management wants it to mean.

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Monash U has stuffed up people’s pay – again. Acting VC Susan Elliott tells the university community that “some casual academic staff have been paid incorrectly.” People were dudded either by not being receiving the rate for their minimum engagement period or were paid the “repeat” rate for taking a  class, when their work was original.  There is the usual blather about being “steadfast in our commitment to paying our staff correctly” and an assurance that “these incorrect payments were unintentional and are deeply regrettable.” But there were quite a lot of them. Professor Elliott states 3.6 per cent of 3.4m timesheets required remediation – that’s close to 130,000 occasions when casuals were not paid what they were owed. They can expect their money in March.

In 2021 the university underpaid people $8.6m because of payroll mistakes

There was no word whether the university has reported the recent failures to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

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Hark! Is that the rustling of election writs? The prime minister was in Newcastle the other day, announcing $20m for the local university to establish “a problem-solving centre for community and small businesses at a purpose-built innovation facility.” It is for university-industry partnerships to take energy, resources and manufacturing ideas to market. Last election the outgoing Coalition government promised Uni Newcastle a clinical school and research institute and a public service training centre.

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Last year Liberal education shadow Sarah Henderson got stuck into Labor for not being tough enough on international student arrivals. “The coalition will impose a much tougher cap on foreign students at metropolitan universities which puts the needs of Australians first,” she said in December, after the Opposition joined with the Greens to block the government’s Bill to reduce arrivals in the Senate.  But Opposition Leader Peter Dutton now says that if he wins the election, “we will work with major metropolitan universities to set stricter caps on foreign students to relieve stress on city rental markets.” Perhaps there is a serious policy with hard numbers underpinning this and vetoing the government’s proposed cap only looked like a campaign stunt for the imminent election

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Western Sydney U is progressing its plan for a campus of its own in India, signing an MOU with the Uttar Pradesh state government. WSU will now apply to the national Universities Grants Commission for a “state of the art” campus in Noida, ‘the gateway to the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.”  The university wants to teach computer science, business and engineering, starting next year.

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Deane-Peter Baker (UNSW) leads a three-uni team researching how autonomous weapons should and will work in “real-world military scenarios,” which presumably means ensuring HAL does not shoot first and ask questions later when told to open the pod-bay door. Funding for UNSW, Arizona State U and Kings College London comes from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It’s part of DARPA’s Autonomy Standards and Ideals with Military Operational Values, which abbreviates to ASIMOV. Yes, probably as in Isaac, the novelist who created the three laws of robotics (1942)  – they forbid robots hurting people.

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ANU VC Genevieve Bell appeared at hearing on antisemitism on university campuses by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Wednesday. It did not go well, with one committee member unconvinced by Professor Bell’s statement that students filmed making what look like Nazi gestures were in fact not.

It follows Chancellor Julie Bishop defending Professor Bell’s consultancy with Intel – following criticism by the NTEU and Liberal education shadow Sarah Henderson. It was a statement showing the HR boxes were ticked, council approved the arrangement and that it ended in November.

Neither will help the VC demonstrate that she has everything under control to those members of the ANU community unconvinced by her warning that jobs cuts are essential.

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As long announced, Last Chief Scientist Cathy Foley left office at year end – in timing not designed to maximise fond farewells, Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic thanked her for her service in a brief New Year’s Eve statement. But who will replace her? The post is in the Prime Minister’s gift and so far he is not saying.

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The Australian Taxation Office report that gambling and tobacco companies use the Research and Development Tax Incentive generated outrage, including from lobbies who want to restrict access to the funding stream to more worthy researchers, in universities for example. They should have stayed schtum – the feds have announced that the two industries will be banned – thus denying universities a bad example to quote in submissions to the R&D inquiry, due to Industry Minister Ed Husic at year end.

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