One of the nation’s most effective and widely liked and respected Indigenous educators, Professor Mark Rose, has been appointed First Nations Commissioner of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC).
The announcement by Education Minister Jason Clare and Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles yesterday caps a remarkable career arc for Professor Rose, who has had remarkable, but often overlooked success leading universities toward highly effective collaborative approaches in attracting and better supporting Indigenous students.
It’s hard to know whether Messers. Clare and Giles realise what a big win this is for ATEC. It is a sign of the talent and capabilities of the ATEC Commissioners that they were able to land a leader with Mark Rose’s capabilities and track record for a five year term.
Professor Rose has been a key driver of the Toorong Marnong initiative (‘Joined Hands’ in Woiwurrung language), run by Indigenous teams from Victorian universities in collaboration with Victorian Aboriginal Education Association, which took the historic step of encouraging students to come to uni, regardless of which institution they chose. The universities involved have agreed that an increase in Indigenous enrolments is a win for all, regardless of the numbers accorded to individual institutions.
Professor Rose joins ATEC from Deakin University, where he has been Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) and has taught in business programs across multiple nations, worked with multiple Ministerial and sectoral committees and multiple universities. Devoid of hubris, Professor Rose is a self-deprecating uniter – with a proven capability to bring people together to make changes that count.
Presumably the announcement of the final ATEC Commissioner helps to mitigate the negative sentiment about the powers of the current and (more of a concern) future Education Ministers in controlling the boundary lines and goals that the new regulatory behemoth operates within.
More importantly, while concern over the ATEC legislation has been intense over the last few months, there has been concern about a lack of action on Indigenous voice, co-design, impact and outcomes in the sector for several years.
This came to a head after the final report on the Accord was released in February 2024, with recommendations for a First Nations led review of HE, and increase in representation of First Nations people in governance and leadership roles and other recommendations supporting Indigenous knowledge and participation.
In this environment, there will be an exceptional level of expectation on the First Nations Commissioner. Some recommendations have been acted upon, but the review in particular opens the opportunity for an inveterate collaborator like Professor Rose to help bring a range of First Nations voices and solutions to the table, ensuring that Indigenous outcomes and perspectives are part of core business, rather than compartmentalised.