Universities Australia Chair Carolyn Evans (Griffith U) pitched for the people at the National Press Club Wednesday.
“If we as a society only focus on the shortcomings of universities, we will miss the opportunity to work with the higher education sector to drive better results for all Australians,” was the message.
And so, she presented a statement of claims.
The big one now is that the Albanese Government comes up with the $770m it would “theoretically” cost to abolish the top band of Job Ready Graduate fees and move law, bized and HASS students to the second level (FC, Tuesday).
She also suggested exempting employers from Fringe Benefit Tax on staff education and training. And Professor Evans proposed a 20% tax benefit for businesses that collaborate with public sector research and development. This could be revenue neutral, she said, if tax incentives were reduced, for (undefined) “less valuable R&D.”
Other claims focused on how universities are improving. They are, for example, on to the need for “more transparency and public benchmarking of remuneration” of Vice-Chancellors. There are “changes” to ensure staff and student members of governing bodies are “treated as equal and respected members.” And Councils recognise there are problems with paying people the right rate for a job.
Mostly Professor Evans talked up present and emerging achievements and how universities can “help create a better future for Australia … with some help from our friends,” including:
- A national research and innovation council overseeing consolidated Commonwealth funding
- Expanding research block grants (in part from “the annual unspent portion” of the Medical Research Future Fund)
- A government-university fund with a capital and IP pipeline sufficient to attract investors
- Innovation precincts of the type we have now, only “properly funded.”
But, there was one thing she claimed her members need less of – regulation. “Too many people are wasting too much time and effort on tasks that minimally reduce risk … this makes it much harder to be innovative or agile the risk from regulators is much reduced if you are doing the same thing that you have always done, the same thing that all the other universities are doing.”
So less will be more.