ICAC survey of SA university staff finds a third of employees feel too intimidated to report problems

South Australia’s universities put their reputation ahead of fixing problems, such as bullying and harassment, an ICAC survey of uni staff has found.

The risk of corruption increases at organisations if employee concerns are not heard and action is nor taken against improper conduct, the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption says in a report into South Australia’s universities.

A third of uni staff felt intimidated to report corruption or inappropriate conduct, ICAC found from a survey.

“Every member of the community has an interest in the universities maintaining, not only excellence in their teaching and research, but also the integrity of their operations,” Commissioner Ann Vanstone said on Thursday.

“The integrity of any organisation is framed by the attitudes and experiences of its staff.

“Organisations that struggle to listen to their employees, or to call out impropriety or to take effective action against improper conduct are at a heightened risk of corruption.”

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Ann Vanstone.

The survey of more than 3200 uni staff was conducted in March this year.

The survey was conducted before then Commissioner Bruce Lander said in May that he was investigating allegations of misconduct by then Adelaide university vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen.

There was “considerable concern” about universities’ cultures of reporting corruption or inappropriate conduct, according to a report on the survey published on Thursday.

A third of respondents agreed their uni placed reputation above addressing problems.

Only one in four agreed their employer had adequate protections in place for those who report corruption or inappropriate conduct.

Most respondents were not confident reporting would result in some form of action.

A significant number of respondents reported feeling intimidated at the prospect of reporting and worried about whether it could impact on their job security.

“Despite these concerns, 75 per cent of respondents agreed they would be willing to report to someone inside their organisation,” Ms Vanstone said.

“This is encouraging.”

Former Adelaide University vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen.

Adelaide Uni interim vice-chancellor Mike Brooks committed the institution to taking action based on the report’s findings.

“Inappropriate conduct of the kind outlined in the survey findings is unacceptable and should not be tolerated, whether in a university, another workplace, or the wider community,” he said.

Flinders University vice-chancellor Colin Stirling said the report “raises a number of important matters”

“It was nonetheless pleasing to see that the majority of university sector staff reported that they would be willing to raise such matters through the appropriate channels,” he said.

“At Flinders University, integrity is a core value and any suspected lapse would always be taken very seriously.”

UniSA vice-chancellor David Lloyd said some of the findings were “deeply concerning”.

“(However) UniSA is waiting for our own institutional report and data to assess the feedback in our specific context,” Prof Lloyd said.

“We are committed to sharing that information with our staff and will openly interrogate the effectiveness of existing processes to assure integrity in our operations.”

All three vice-chancellors urged staff and students to report concerns.

The ICAC report said inappropriate conduct was primarily:

• bullying and harassment.

• favouritism or nepotism.

• inappropriate staff recruitment (both fixed term and sessional staff).

• improper influence or practice involving student enrolment, student assessment

and grading.

• failure to fulfil duties.

• conflicts of interest.

• inappropriate conduct in research or scholarly practice.

The report did not differentiate responses between the universities other than that 1364 respondents identified as working at Adelaide University, 695 from Flinders and 1173 from UniSA.