August 12, 2025
The Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee Inquiry into quality of governance at Australian higher education providers, Public Hearing. Opening statement from Vicki Thomson, Chief Executive, The Group of Eight
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Committee's inquiry into quality of governance at Australian higher education providers.
The Go8 welcomes the interest in good governance – which is never set and forget – and we acknowledge that university governance must evolve to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing higher education landscape.
We understand the concerns raised about representation, transparency and executive accountability. These are legitimate issues and we are committed to working constructively with government, regulators, staff and students to address them. Our universities are actively and continually doing this.
However, we urge the committee to consider the complexity of university governance. Our councils are not simply administrative bodies - they are strategic entities tasked with balancing student success and wellbeing, academic freedom, financial sustainability and the long-term national interest.
Our universities are amongst the most complex institutions in Australia. Collectively Go8 revenue is $18 billion annually, export earnings are over $5 billion annually, we employ more than 55,000 staff and educate almost 500,000 students, including at the over 40 campuses and teaching facilities in regional Australia. We are responsible for 20 percent of the nation's research effort - research which underpins our national economy.
The Go8 absolutely supports the need for effective governance, especially given the size and complexity of our operations. We support processes to ensure appropriate checks and balances in a context of transparency and accountability, and part of this must also be ensuring that those measures remain effective, reasonable and proportionate.
Australia's interests are best served when our universities are able to operate efficiently in discharging their administrative and regulatory obligations, while directing as much of their human and financial resources as possible towards the pursuit of our purpose – delivering high quality education and transformative research.
Universities are places where excellence and reason are nurtured, where new knowledge is developed through robust and respectful debate.
In this contest of ideas, we have a duty to apply our critical lens not just to fields as diverse as science and philosophy, to governments, corporations and individuals, but also to ourselves as public institutions and leaders. While we may not always get it right, we take responsibility when issues are identified and address them.
Australian public universities are not-for-profit organisations that are bound to serve legislated missions in the national interest through higher education, research, community engagement and partnerships with governments, community sector organisations and industry.
To do this we must maintain public trust and confidence in universities and their leaders. If we do not live up to public expectations of good governance, then we have a responsibility to address this openly and forthrightly.
And Universities should be afforded a reasonable opportunity to address the issues raised to public satisfaction. The airing of grievances and public commentary may provide some temporary relief, but genuine reform and enduring improvements will come from the tasks of gathering evidence, working collaboratively, sharing ideas and perspectives, and reaching an accord.
Not only are our institutions complex but so too is our operating environment which sits in the context of a dynamic regulatory environment at Federal, State and Territory level. There is a genuine risk of regulatory overreach that could ultimately be counterproductive. At one count, there are over 300 pieces of legislation and regulation that apply to universities.
The Department of Education acknowledged in its earlier appearance that "university governance policies are a little bit complex" and that "historically, governance and regulatory policies have emphasised the role of individual universities in making their own choices about how they should operate."
Universities are governed ultimately by councils or senates chaired by the chancellor, but underneath that body there are academic boards or senates, finance committees, audit and risk committees, vice chancellors, divisions responsible for academic matters, research, engagement and university operations, faculties, schools, institutes, centres, associated entities, foreign subsidiaries, joint agreements and ventures, partnership agreements, colleges, and student accommodation providers.
Vice chancellors and their senior delegates pick up the phone for everyone from local councillors to ministers to prime ministers, from student councils to ministerial councils, from trade delegates to ambassadors to foreign leaders, as they should.
Universities, their chancellors and vice chancellors have responded to the challenges the legislative and regulatory environment has presented them.
Universities are governed and operated differently than they were before the Morrison Government introduced Jobs-ready Graduates and the Foreign Arrangements Scheme, before the Rudd-Gillard Governments introduced the demand driven system, before the Howard Government changed HECS and the composition of councils, before the Hawke-Keating Governments introduced HECS and opened the door to more international students, before the Whitlam Government abolished tuition fees, and before the Menzies Government federalised university funding.
Which is to say, Universities have inevitably changed with the times to become the institutions that serve the nation, not just sections of society - from educating domestic students from all backgrounds to delivering world class research that impact our everyday lives. These changes have been hugely beneficial but that doesn't mean we can't do better.
From my perspective, I get to witness the extraordinary cooperation of my eight members on a range of issues - including tackling antisemitism and seeking to eradicate all forms of racism on campus, improving equity, countering foreign interference, promoting Indigenous leadership, improving safety on campus, and working towards sustainability. That tells me that there is a lot we are doing right and a lot of goodwill and enthusiasm to continually improve.
The Go8 believes that this Committee can make a worthwhile contribution to improving higher education by focusing on identifying opportunities that will deliver tangible and substantial improvements in the sector, such as structural distortions currently inhibiting university capacity to deliver for Australia.
We urge the Committee to consider the Expert Council on University Governance established by the Minister for Education, the Hon Jason Clare MP, which will "provide expert and technical governance advice to Education Ministers about how to improve university governance and performance".
The Council should be engaged in the consideration of any recommendations or outcomes from this inquiry. While it is essential that good governance practices are established and maintained, it is essential that these practices are coherent, consistent and do not lead to activity that is unnecessary or potentially counterproductive.
We also refer the Committee to the University Chancellors Council (UCC), comprised of the Chancellors of all universities established under their own respective Acts of Parliament, which is the representative and collaborative body with ultimate responsibility for the governance of our universities.
It oversees a range of processes and tools that promote greater transparency. These include access to Codes to assist in the delivery of best practice for governance.
In closing, I reiterate that Go8 universities are absolutely committed to strengthening governance across the sector - we welcome scrutiny and the opportunities it presents for continuous improvement, collaboration and evidence based reform. However, we caution against regulatory overreach that risks undermining the very goals it is intended to achieve.
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