Give staff and students more say over governance, Victoria told

Victoria’s government would more than double the number of elected staff and student representatives on university councils, under recommendations from a parliamentary committee.

The state government would also amend each university’s enabling act to add legislative clout, and some extra teeth, to transparency requirements recently enacted by Canberra.

The inquiry into university governance, conducted by the lower house’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, has uncovered starkly divided views about the oversight of Victoria’s eight publicly funded institutions. Staff and student groups say legislative change is needed to resolve a “major crisis”, as governing bodies prioritise commercial interests over education, research and community service.

Vice-chancellors dispute the crisis claims and oppose legislative change, saying existing mechanisms – including federal regulatory frameworks and “dialogue” with the state government – are enough to strengthen accountability.

The committee has sided with staff and students, tabling 17 recommendations around universities’ transparency mechanisms, the composition and operations of their councils, their handling of complaints and their dealings with the state government.

Under the recommendations, university acts would be amended to require at least three elected staff and two elected students on each governing body – up from one of each, under current arrangements. Legislative changes would also force universities to include details of their expenditure on consultants and the “skills matrices” they use to appoint council members – together with their assessment of each recruit’s suitability – in institutional annual reports.

University acts would also be amended to require annual reporting of council members’ remuneration and performance benchmarks. Other recommendations include mandatory publication of the agendas and key outcomes of council meetings, and publicly available registers of council members’ interests.

The government would also conduct four reviews into council appointment processes, staff complaint systems, student complaint systems and – after three years – the impacts of the legislative amendments.

Many of these proposals duplicate recent changes to university regulatory standards, made on the recommendation of the federal government’s expert council on university governance. But Joo-Cheong Tham, assistant state secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), said the Victorian report went further in mandating more elected council members and improved transparency around council appointments.

Tham said the Victorian committee had delivered an “effective rebuff” to the vice-chancellors’ denial of a governance crisis, echoing expert council boss Melinda Cilento’s criticism of their “lack of curiosity” about their reputational problems.

The report accuses university leaders of turning a deaf ear to threats to their social licence. “While universities were clear in their submissions about their intent to serve the public interest…they did not address the concerns raised by their key stakeholders: that universities are increasingly becoming corporatised and focusing on revenue raising above their traditional goals of research and teaching,” it says.

In testimony to the committee, vice-chancellors dismissed these concerns. “If we were driven by money and a return on investment, we would not operate the [regional] Warrnambool campus,” former Deakin University boss Iain Martin protested. “It loses the university A$10 million [£5.2 million] a year.”

Interim University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis said his institution had “gone broke” in the past when it lacked financial expertise in its governance. “The current structure…is a response to the historical record,” he explained.

While the committee has brushed off such arguments, the government’s view is yet to emerge. The report’s 28 July release was overshadowed by a cabinet coup, with Victorian premier Jacinta Allen replaced by her deputy Ben Carroll.

In an interview last September with The Age newspaper, Carroll – then state education minister – confirmed his support for the NTEU’s calls for university governance reform, including legislative change.

The union’s Victorian secretary, Sarah Roberts, said the government must accept the committee’s recommendations in full. “Transparent meetings, published pay benchmarks and a real say for staff and students on council are not radical asks,” she said. “They are the basics of good governance.”

The president of the National Union of Students, Felix Hughes, said the report showed that the status quo had failed. “For too long, decisions at universities have been made behind closed doors, leaving students and staff to deal with the consequences. Legislating at least two elected students on every university council would be…a major shift in who gets a voice.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com