Jason Clare spells out how ATEC will use its powers to end the “cut and paste” university system.
In a low-key announcement after the Budget, the Education Minister criticised what was once hailed as a unified national system, where all public universities undertook wide-ranging research.
“This has resulted in too many ‘broad-based universities’ rather than universities building scale in their areas of competitive and comparative advantage,” he said.
Mr Clare added, “specialisation could be aligned with national priorities and how universities can best meet community needs,” without having to meet the current legislated requirement for research at world standard in 50% of disciplines they teach.
And the new Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) will advise on implementing “a system where we have universities of different sizes and do different things.”
ATEC is already on to it, beginning negotiations with universities on their individual compacts with government, which will determine their overall publicly funded student places and relate what they teach to government skills and workforce priorities.
Mr Clare said reducing the mandatory 50% research requirement was a recommendation from the Strategic Examination of Research and Development, for Industry Minister Tim Ayres.