It appears the higher education establishment is wondering if that distant sound is the tumbrils on their way.
Uni WA announces a day of discussion on HE “governance, regulation and impact.” Organiser Paul Maginn makes the case, pointing to recent recommendations to Education Minister Jason Clare on reforming university councils and the WA Government considering mergers among the state’s public universities.
He could have added the creation of ATEC and more powers for TEQSA to the list of erosions of university autonomy by the Commonwealth. But the agenda for the event demonstrates that the second estate gets the times are changing.
The topics address key areas of expanding government intervention, including:
- “Student demand, supply and allocation”
- Institutional autonomy and national priorities
- International education
- Funding, Accountability and government roles
And spelling out what it all could come to, “the Australian Constitution and university governance and regulation.” Unless of course, Mr Clare has covered this off already by lining-up support from the States.
Serious stuff, serious enough to attract powerful members of the ancien régime and independent experts to explain what the Jacobins are up to.
Speakers include former Commonwealth Chief Justice and recently ex-chancellor of UWA Robert French, the Group of Eight’s Vicki Thomson, Melinda Cilento from CEDA (she chaired Clare’s council governance review), independent national policy analyst in chief Andrew Norton and the Productivity Commission’s Alex Robson.
If anybody from the University Chancellors Council was invited to speak, they must have had pressing matters at the chateau scheduled for the day. And no, the National Tertiary Education Union is not on the list.
Perhaps they should also invite present consultant and former VC (La Trobe U, recently Interim at Uin Wollongong) John Dewar, to suggest what university managements need to do, and fast to meet Clare’s requirements. He urges universities do five things “as governance reform approaches,”
- Appoint an independent member to council with HE leadership experience
- Open communications with staff and students, beyond their council reps
- Monitor university community mood
- “Lead on transparency, “700 to 900 pages of Council papers is not conducive”
- Provide information on consultants.
And suggesting why they must act, Professor Dewar acknowledges, “For some institutions, meeting the new standards will require significant cultural and compliance change.”