Enhancing the university sector

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has opened an important national conversation in his call for the three-decade-old model of comprehensive universities to be revisited. After a loss of $2 billion in international student fees last year as a result of the pandemic, a rationalisation of the work of the nation’s 39 public universities, with a view to “differen­tiation and specialisation”, could be timely, as Mr Tudge told higher education editor Tim Dodd on Friday’s front page. Several influential academics have already embraced the conversation.

Economist Richard Holden, the incoming president of the Academy of the Social Sciences, said universities would benefit if they followed the principle of comparative advantage and ­focused on areas of excellence. Princeton, one of the world’s great universities, had neither a law school nor a medical school, he pointed out. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology specialises heavily, but not entirely, in engineering and science. Australia’s newest vice-chancellor, the University of Wollongong’s Patricia Davidson, said her previous institution — Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, where she was dean of nursing — showed it was possible to pursue “selective excellence”. In the health disciplines, Johns Hopkins specialises only in medicine, nursing and public health.

Diversification is already under way. The advent of smaller, specialist colleges such as Campion College and Alphacrucis College, both in Parramatta, has increased students’ choices in the liberal arts and humanities, especially in the study of Western civilisation and theology. And from July 1, under new regu­lations, a new category of university colleges will free up some institutions from meeting the research standards that apply to universities. Such colleges will be able to opt to be teaching-focused. This would be a worthwhile development if graduates were better prepared for working life in disciplines such as preschool, primary and secondary classroom teaching. If the model gains traction, it could signal a return to a system more like the pre-Dawkins model, in which colleges of advanced education specialised in teaching students but not in research.

In the late 1980s and early 90s, changes introduced by John Dawkins, education minister in the Hawke government, created larger universities, often spread over several campuses, towns or states, offering courses in virtually all subjects. In many cases, however, they have often duplicated the work of nearby rival universities.

As Universities Australia chairman and La Trobe University vice-chancellor John Dewar says, universities vary according to the communities they serve, their student bodies and their industry relationships. With most students opting to live at or near home, some vice-chancellors say specialisation among institutions, especially in regional and rural areas, would reduce students’ options. On the other hand, with three large universities and smaller institutions operating in major cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, there is scope to streamline courses on offer while concentrating on building specialist areas of excellence. Mr Tudge is right. This is a debate the nation needs.