Jason Clare announces ATEC will end the “cut and paste” university system.
In a low-key announcement after the Budget, the Education Minister criticised what was once the sacrosanct unified national system, with all public universities funded to undertake 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 (minimum three). The ‘university’ title has depended on it.
But the Minister said 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 how many publicly-funded student places they are allocated and will require them to shape their teaching to focus on six government skills and workforce priorities. ATEC also is empowered to advise the Minister on research and research training, “to ensure its priorities align with broader objectives for Australia’s research and development system.”
ATEC Interim Chief Commissioner Barney Glover acknowledges university autonomy and the Commission is unlikely to specify what universities research. But the compacts process will be a way to encourage institutions to match teaching to research and drop disciplines without student demand and related funding.
This will be an existential crisis for university managements desperate to improve their standing by ever-improving international rankings and for academics who value their research record more than teaching achievements.