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End reform impasse: Glover
UA chief decries deadlock over proposed deregulation, points to common ground.
Universities Australia has called on politicians to end a“ legislative impasse” that the peak body argues has left the sector in“ funding limbo” without a clear vision for the future.
In a speech at the National Press club in Canberra, UA president professor Barney Glover outlined the body’ s latest policy document. Among its key principles are calls for stability to be returned to the sector along with greater autonomy for universities to self-accredit.
Glover said that a stable policy environment was firmly in the“ nation’ s best interest” and that debate in the wake of the Coalition’ s push for“ possibly the most far-reaching reform proposal in the history of Australian higher education” had led to a political quagmire.
“ The … eventual legislative impasse has effectively left the nation’ s third-largest export industry and leading service export without a structural and strategic vision for the coming decades,” Glover told the Press Club.“ Worse, we are effectively in funding limbo. In the context of the considerable challenges and
opportunities [ in front of the sector ], this kind of instability is simply intolerable.”
Earlier in his speech, Glover highlighted recent areas of apparent policy alignment from the two major parties, such as statements from both spruiking the central importance of investment in science and technology for Australia’ s jobs market and national prosperity.
Included among the initiatives for which Glover urged bipartisan support was the establishment of an innovation board which he said would comprise“ senior government, industry, university and other research community representatives, to provide strategic leadership in securing an integrated national research and innovation effort”.
In addition, he said, greater investment was needed to encourage undergraduate student entrepreneurship along with university-industry engagement.
“ With government, universities, industry and the start-up community seemingly in furious agreement on what’ s needed, we may be confident not only that we will get through this period of change, but also that we as a society will adapt and evolve in a way that benefits us all,” Glover said. ■
For more, see“ Go8 defends funding plan”, p15.
New standards cut red tape
Birmingham says coming guidelines will shrink compliance burden, put focus on quality starting in 2017.
Universities have welcomed newly announced federal standards that will require institutions to give students information in plain English before they enrol.
Also under the new standards, universities will be measured on the experience they deliver and less on filling out paperwork, the federal education minister, Simon Birmingham, said in a statement on Tuesday. The sector will have a year to comply with the new guidelines once they take effect from January 1, 2017.
Universities said the new requirements would cut down on their administrative burden and allow them to better support students.
“ The new standards will promote the quality of Australian higher education providers and reduce the administrative burden associated with compliance assessments by TEQSA,” Birmingham said.“ Once fully implemented, the new standards are [ expected ] to reduce the administrative burden on higher education providers by more than $ 2.5 million a year.“ It is the [ Higher Education Standards ]
Panel’ s view, and my expectation, that the new standards will be used by the sector not just to meet TEQSA’ s requirements but, more importantly, to continue to improve opportunities and experiences for students.”
Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said:“ The new standards provide an effective and flexible framework for 21st-century universities.”
“ The university sector is very supportive of the new higher education standards released by Minister Birmingham – we congratulate the standards panel on their hard work,” she added.“ As well as reducing the administrative burden on universities, the new standards will allow them to better respond to changing student and community needs.
“ The panel has worked constructively with the sector in developing these standards. Universities Australia looks forward to working with both TEQSA and the panel over the next 12 months ahead of them taking effect.” ■
Andrew Bracey and AAP
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