The Education Minister was outmanoeuvred by the Opposition and Greens on international student caps but now he has a new pitch – ensuring universities pay people what they are owed under enterprise agreements.
The plan has been hiding in plain sight for months but his office have dropped the word to The Australian that Mr Clare will announce extra oversight “within days.”
In April, Mr Clare and State Ministers with universities in their portfolios agreed on “an expert governance council.” And in October, he told the university chancellors conference that it will advise the Minister on three areas:
- “ensuring that universities are good employers … where staff can have confidence that they will not be underpaid fir the important work they do”
- “making sure governing bodies have the right expertise, including in the business of running universities”
- “making sure our universities are safe for our students and staff”
These are all major interventions, adding additional powers to the scope of existing regulators, notably TEQSA and especially the new Student Ombudsman.
Plus the new council could oversight how universities set senior staff pay. The text of Mr Clare’s October address does not mention tbis, but in April he stated institutions will need to, “demonstrate and maintain a rigorous and transparent process for developing remuneration policies and settings for senior university staff, with consideration given to comparable scale and complexity public sector entities, and ensure remuneration policies and packages are publicly reported.”
A spokesman for the Minister is quoted saying the governance council would “scrutinise” senior staff pay.
If so, it is smart politics, presenting the government as a friend of university staff. And it will give Mr Clare a subject to switch too when universities complain about pretty much anything. Plus, it starves the Coalition of another avenue for electoral oxygen. Short of shadow minister Sarah Henderson repeating the international student ploy of “anything you can cut we can cut deeper,” strategy Mr Clare owns this one.
For the sector, with headlines on ghost colleges, wage theft and VC pay comparison charts appearing just this week, this appears to confirm Mr Clare’s suggestion that social licence has been lost. If ever there was a clarion call for support to develop a new narrative around higher education and its value and relevance to Australians, the past couple of month’s media clippings are it.
