Opinion
My Mum, who lives off about the same amount of money per year as I seem to spend on my frivolous whims some weeks, sent me across a chunk of money the other day with a note.
She had read the story that I had laboured over for about three weeks about two extraordinary academics running a displaced ‘university without walls’ after their hometown was overrun by Russian forces in Ukraine in February 2022.
My Mum wanted to help pay for them to come to Australia to speak.
I assured her that Future Campus will probably cover those costs through ticket sales to the Universities Without Walls Symposium, but we would also try to set up a fundraiser to send money for student emergency generators and relief instead.
It turns out that it’s not that easy to do. One platform cancelled my account before I could finish setting up a fundraising campaign, another let me set it up but then I discovered some terrible reviews about it and quickly cancelled my account, and others won’t let me raise funds for an offshore cause. I then started in on reading the diverse and depressing range of State and Territory-based legislation for fundraisers.
After three full days of trying different avenues and failing, I suddenly wondered if this was an allegory for regulation of education in 2026 – and hoped it wasn’t?
We know dodgy faux fundraisers (I think the Education Minister would call them shonky) have done some terrible things in the past and that needs to be prevented from happening again, but Australia now has so much regulation and it is so uneven, that new entrants, no matter how good their intentions or potential, risk being excluded.
The complexity of Australian fundraising regulations make it challenging to offer help. The regulations have good intent but also a problematic impact. Ukrainian students will continue to shiver through yet another Winter of War, trying to charge laptops and jump onto the internet for the few hours of electricity that many are restricted to each day. Even a successful fundraising campaign would only small portion of those in need – but the obstacles to starting a fundraising campaign risk thwarting even those ambitions.
There are limp expressions of resolve to harmonise State and Territory legislation on fundraising, but it’s so much easier to conjure your own version of a blunt instrument to prevent change than it is to find the right guardrails to enable and guide progress.
Which rings a bell, doesnt it? The tertiary education sector is set for yet more change as we look beyond the shutdown period. Like fundraising reforms, the success of regulation and funding models introduced in relation to higher education next year will have a major impact on students – this time Australian ones – as well as staff. There have already been ample concerns aired about strangulation by regulation. The wins claimed on harmonisation between HE and VET implemented this year only fomented discord – credit transfers between the two have been around a long time, particularly in dual sector institutions. Pretending none of it ever happened before doesn’t help build a credible case for change.
As we move into 2026 there will be a need to point out, call out or even better, collaborate to resolve regulatory over-reach and contradiction. Andrew Norton already does this, but one voice is not enough. Expecting Universities Australia to solve it and sitting back to watch will also not be enough. The sector must not shy away from owning and apologising for calamities of the past that are spurring regulatory enthusiasts onwards – but must also conjure and articulate alternative solutions.
The sector must find new, more effective avenues of influence to ensure that the labyrinthine exoskeleton of external governance, scrutiny, regulation and strategic direction does not have the chance to snuff out the sparks of innovation, initiative or challenges to orthodoxy that remain.
That requires a new approach to social licence, and fresh voices to help lead us into more constructive, logical, effective pathways.
I’m still planning to get some sort of fundraiser up and running, and it’s going to be amped up on transparency to the max (I’ll let you know how I go). In the meantime, I figure a similar sort of approach is required to extract more workable solutions out of the educational regulation ecosystem to be revealed next year.
Right now, though, it’s time to recharge. I hope you get as much rest as I am planning on taking, so we can kick off the New Year together, refreshed for the opportunities – and of course the challenges that could still be opportunities – ahead of us.