The Senate committee inquiry into university governance has comprehensively trashed the existing model of university councils.
The committee report, released late Friday, states that “there is a striking gap in the perceptions of university management and the rest of the university community.”
The committee adds, “across all the themes in this report … universities maintained that the current systems, processes, and policies are largely sufficient and do not require wholesale intervention or amendment,” the committee, chaired by South Australian Labor senator Marielle Smith reported.
However, it “cannot agree that there are no areas that require sector-wide improvement or enhancement.”
While the Committee backs a core objective of the National Tertiary Education Union, which is campaigning for wholesale change to university governance by increasing staff and student elected members, it does so only in principle, stating, “there is merit” in a minimum of two staff and two student representatives.
However, the union will be pleased with the Committee recognising that universities are public sector agencies, meaning, council members should be “equipped with knowledge of the university sector and their role as public institutions established for the public good.”
The Committee worked in two parts, the first before the election; then reconvening as a successor inquiry in the new Parliament. It heard evidence from university managements plus staff and students, including allegations from elected union members on councils about their treatment by chancellors made under parliamentary privilege, including against ANU’s Julie Bishop.
Its overall intent is buried in a commentary on an otherwise innocuous 12th recommendation: “the committee recognises the important role universities play as autonomous, self-governing institutions. However, this autonomy must be exercised in line with the public interest and balanced with clear standards of transparency and accountability. The committee considers that the recommendations in this report will strengthen governance across the sector, restore trust between universities and their communities, and ensure that Australian universities deliver for all Australians.”
Specific recommendations include:
- Regulator TEQSA to be given power to enforce publication of council records where legal, plus a conflict-of-interest register and details on consultancies including whether they could/not be done in house.
- Other recommendations propose increasing the regulator’s authority and oversight, along lines nominated by the Government for consideration by a separate review.
- ”Best-practice and meaningful consultation” on major change proposals, including staff and student involvement before decisions are made.
- Elected council members “are supported” to “consult with their communities as needed.”
What happens next: the report will likely go into the mix with recommendations from Education Minister Jason Clare’s working party on university governance and the inquiry on extending TEQSA powers.
After a sustained campaign highlighting case studies in poor university governance from staff and the NTEU, as well as a cascade of inquiries at a sector-wide and institutional level, Education Minister is being gifted an apparently unbeatable hand in driving governance change in concert with State and Territory Education Ministers, who are accountable for appointments to all university and TAFE councils apart from ANU.
Given Minister Clare is responsible for appointments to the beleaguered ANU Council, he faces rare political exposure unless he acts relatively soon on governance. Transforming governance also offers the opportunity to indirectly and directly exert control even more of the apparatus of tertiary education.