INDUSTRY & RESEARCH campusreview. com. au
The trouble with innovation
Universities need to modernise, be flexible and rethink enterprise bargain agreements, says one higher education analyst.
Rod Gutierrez interviewed by James Wells
What is innovation? According to the editor of a new report calling for the modernisation of higher education, this is a question the sector is yet to answer.
Dr Rod Gutierrez, director of higher education strategy at business consultancy Lee Hecht Harrison and editor of its University for the Future report, says the sector needs to answer this question so it can diversify its funding streams, which is essential for the sector to maintain its teaching and research excellence as public funding dries up.
“[ Universities need ] diversified funding streams that are underpinned by true innovation,” Gutierrez says.“ I think this is something that the sector still needs to actually define.
“ If you read a lot of the strategic plans of many of the universities that have innovation at the very front and centre of mind, they are still very much in their infancy in trying to actually define, in a differentiated way, what innovation means for themselves in a more competitive environment and in an environment with shrinking income and shrinking resources.”
And it’ s likely that universities will take a budgetary hit from the federal government. At the 2017 Universities Australia conference in Canberra in early March, federal education minister Simon Birmingham alluded to funding cuts for the sector in upcoming policy.
“ We cannot make everybody happy, but we must balance priorities to do what is in the best interests of Australia and the people we are here to serve, and I know that requires long-term sustainable, strong universities,” Birmingham told delegates.
Gutierrez is also calling for the modernisation of universities and the renegotiation of outdated enterprise bargaining agreements( EBA). He says they should be altered to allow greater collaboration with industry, and allow for more flexibility in academic roles. Such a process, he points out, will require unions to sit down with universities to amicably renegotiate EBAs for the benefit of all parties.
Campus Review sits down with Gutierrez to discuss the report and its implications for Australia’ s universities.
CR: What do you believe is the key message this report is trying to convey?
RG: Overwhelmingly, it is that the sector as a whole is under a lot of pressure, and that pressure is coming from enduring reduction in real term funding for the public sector, and also because on the other side of the equation you have increasing student demand
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