Premier Jay Weatherill wants structural reform of South Australia’s university sector

PREMIER Jay Weatherill says a radical option of merging Adelaide’s three universities must be considered to create jobs and industries. VOTE: Should the unis be merged?

PREMIER Jay Weatherill has warned the state’s universities are failing to get full commercial value from their research and says a radical option of merging the three institutions must be considered to create jobs and industries.

Mr Weatherill has told The Advertiser “structural reform” of SA’s university sector must be considered to ensure they have the “critical mass” to bring products to market.

Governor Kevin Scarce last week released the Shaping the Future of SA report, which listed increasing the commercialisation of intellectual property as a key area for action.

It proposed merging the business arms of Flinders University, the University of Adelaide and UniSA to make it easier for industry to make use of research discoveries.

Mr Weatherill said the state’s universities struggled to allocate enough resources to properly commercialise their research and “radical ideas” for change must be on the table.

Full-scale amalgamation of some or all of the universities must be considered, he said.

“The anecdotal information that we have is that there are some elements within universities that are not supportive of commercialisation agendas of some of the academics,” Mr Weatherill said.

“It becomes a question of how much time and resources a particular university can allocate to teaching, research and commercialisation.

“Across all three universities, it just becomes a critical mass of time and effort that needs to be put into things before they become successful.

“There’s a range of structural reform options - two of the three getting together, the whole three universities getting together.

“They’re quite radical ideas but if your starting point is the size of this challenge and if this is right, that we need to lift, essentially the capabilities of our tertiary sector to contribute to our prosperity ... then you have to consider structural reform.”

Other options were to create joint commercialisation hubs between the universities with specific focuses on distinct key industries including health, mining and food production, he said.

Former UniSA vice-chancellor Peter Hoj has previously mused the state missed a “very special” opportunity when talks for a merger with the University of Adelaide were abandoned in 2012.

He said amalgamation could have allowed money wasted on duplicated administration to be directed into improved academic and business programs.

University of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor Warren Bebbington said the three universities had met with Mr Weatherill last week to discuss the Governor’s report.

He said they were developing plans for a joint “connector” business but intended to retain individual commercialisation arms.

“We agree that we need to put our three commercialisation arms together and put a joint proposal to him to find a way to deal better with industry,” Prof Bebbington said.

“We all agree that the universities can do better in commercialisation.”

Professor Bebbington said the connector business would function in a similar way to Education Adelaide, a joint body between the universities aimed at attracting international students.

However, he said the reality of full-scale university mergers was often very different to the idea.

“Mergers very rarely produce savings and usually take about a decade to bed down because you’re putting two cultures together. Often, they do significant damage,” Prof Bebbington said.

SA Health and Medical Research Institute executive director Steve Wesselingh said the University of Adelaide was the smallest of the influential G8 group of universities and the size discrepancy meant “we get overlooked’’ in attracting research dollars, international students and staff.

UniSA Vice-Chancellor David Lloyd encouraged a debate on mergers.

“We need to be careful to not assume that any merger will of itself automatically deliver improved outcomes for students, business or the community,” he said.

“It should only be considered if there are tangible strategic benefits for the state and the community.”

The university sector is controlled by the Federal Government, leaving the State Government largely powerless to force any change without agreement from Canberra or the institutions.

However, Mr Weatherill said he was prepared to consider new grants programs that would incentivise universities to work together and promote the commercialisation of research.

Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne said his proposal to deregulate the higher education sector would allow universities to expand their connections with business.

“The Australian Government has put on the table a big reform agenda for universities that will both expand opportunities for students and boost the national and international competitiveness of our higher education sector,” he said.