The Australia Institute has recommended an extensive list of reforms to make our once-great university sector more efficient, transparent and democratic – in a submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Quality of Governance at Australian Higher Education Providers.
Australia's higher education sector has been plagued with scandals in recent years, from wage theft and conflicts of interest, to excessive spending on marketing, travel and consultants.
Yet our university Vice-Chancellors are among the highest-paid in the world.
In 2023, the Australian National University spent around $54 million on consultants. It was later revealed that contracts were awarded to a consulting firm run by a friend of Chancellor Julie Bishop. As the University cut costs and slashed jobs, Ms. Bishop spent $150,000 on travel.
The Australia Institute's recommendations include:
- A focus on the central purpose of education and public research, rather than commercial performance
- Requiring universities to provide an itemised disclosure report for spending on consultants (as is currently the case in Victoria)
- Real-time disclosure of conflicts of interest
- A cap on Vice-Chancellor salaries and a ban on Vice Chancellors taking on other paid work
- Funding increased to 1% of GDP
- The Australian Tertiary Education Commission empowered to scrutinise universities whose governance, course quality and health and safety standards are inadequate
- Amending the Establishing Acts of universities to ensure the majority of those on governing bodies are democratically elected
- Requiring the councils or governing bodies of universities to hold their meetings in public
"Governance at Australia's universities is in a dire state," said Jack Thrower, co-author of The Australia Institute submission to the Senate Inquiry.
"Universities need to be held to account. They spend a fortune on consultants while slashing courses, jobs and cutting costs.
"There are serious conflict-of-interest concerns amid lavish spending by Vice Chancellors who are paid like CEOs but do not face the oversight of a board with the legal obligations of a private company or the threat of takeover if they do a bad job.
"Great countries have great institutions. But, after nearly forty years of pressure to become more "business-like", the governance structures at Australia's uni's are increasingly inappropriate for the size, structure, and goals of modern university management."
