New disability committees to be given say over funding

Staff and students with disabilities will call the shots on how their universities spend up to A$50 million (£27 million) a year in disability funding, under an Australian regulatory change to be phased in from July.

New guidelines issued by federal education minister Jason Clare require each publicly funded university to establish a “disability governance committee” as an eligibility condition for grants from the Disability Support Fund.

The committees must be comprised mainly of people with disabilities, including at least two disabled students. They must also contain an executive at pro vice-chancellor level or above and at least two academics, one professional services staff member and two independent appointees.

The committees will have responsibility for “overseeing and providing advice” on the use of Disability Support Fund grants, according to the guidelines.

The fund was quadrupled in the 2024 mini-budget, which pledged billions of dollars to implement recommendations from the Australian Universities Accord. Although the accord’s equity proposals attracted broad support, its approach to disability issues drew protests over “misleading” data and the absence of a participation target.

The new guidelines represent a victory for disability rights advocates, whose demands for a bigger say in the sector’s decision-making processes intensified following the release of the accord’s final report.

Lawyer and governance expert Paul Harpur said the guidelines resembled the oversight arrangements for the Indigenous Student Success Programme, whose impact on opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and students had been “profoundly positive”.  

“[Hopefully the] guidelines will likewise intensify attention to disability governance and ultimately create a more inclusive sector for the more than one in 10 people in Australian higher education who live with a disability,” said Harpur, a former member of the accord’s ministerial reference group and the Higher Education Standards Panel.

The new governance committees must be resourced, and their operations can be funded through Disability Support Fund grants, the guidelines say.

The guidelines also require each university to establish a disability education inclusion strategy and a disability workforce inclusion strategy, each overseen by the governance committee.

The strategies must be drafted in consultation with disabled students and staff, and specify activities to improve access and completion rates for disabled students and the recruitment, professional development and promotion of disabled staff. They must outline at least three years of actions, with “key performance indicators” to assess impact, the guidelines say.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com