Failed UNISA, Adelaide merger highlights issues raised by Nous

The Nous report identifies many of the problems that inhibit our universities and other higher education providers.

It’s an apt coincidence that the proposed merger between the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia collapsed on the eve of the release of a new report from Nous Group.

Its main authors, Robert Griew and Jessie Borthwick, argue convincingly that the current higher education funding system — which forces research-heavy universities to subsidise research from their student teaching funds — has had its day.

It encourages universities to get large and unwieldy just so they can skim more money from funds intended for students to pay for their research. This does not benefit students, and encourages the growth of mega-universities that otherwise would have little, if any, reason to get so big.

It’s a good thing that, after months of consideration, the University of SA pulled out of the merger, leaving the University of Adelaide high and dry. Adelaide’s chancellor Kevin Scarce, a former SA governor who was the merger’s main proponent, should bear responsibility for the misguided effort. Now Scarce and his vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen have some work to do.

Adelaide is a university with an illustrious history, now under pressure.

It’s in a city without much of a business base, it lacks rich donors and it’s threatened by the rapid growth of its putative merger partner, the University of SA.

Meanwhile, the Nous report is worth very close attention. It identifies many of the problems that currently inhibit our universities and other higher education providers.

It asks the question why there is an arbitrary and increasingly meaningless distinction between higher education and other parts of the tertiary education system. It also asks why we insist on all universities doing research, when the higher education system has already expanded way beyond the fairly small number of students who want or need to do an undergraduate degree that is informed by research. It also focuses attention on the crying need to fix the problems of vocational education, which is failing young people and not meeting employer needs.

Now the big question is whether the higher education community will own the problems and be willing to adopted reasonable solutions. Will you hold your breath?