Mega merger would give SA unis an annual $100m research bonus

A mega university in South Australia could invest $100m a year on improving its research and teaching, says Peter Rathjen.

A mega-university formed by merging South Australia’s two largest institutions would be able to invest $100 million a year on improving its research and teaching, says the University of Adelaide’s vice-chancellor, Peter Rathjen.

A mega-university formed by merging South Australia’s two largest institutions would be able to invest $100 million a year on improving its research and teaching, says the University of Adelaide’s vice-chancellor, Peter Rathjen.

Based on early modelling of a proposed merger of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia, Professor Rathjen said at least that amount would be available. “Where that would be distributed would be a matter for decision, but some or all of that could be used to bolster ­research,” he said.

The University of SA’s vice-chancellor, David Lloyd, said the proposed merger was not about finding cost reductions. He and Professor Rathjen both said it was about creating a larger institution more able to grow, more competitive in attracting research funding and better positioned to engage with industry.

“Both David and I think there will be more staff in the new university, there’ll be at least as many students and … we would expect to have more international students and much more research,” Professor Rathjen said.

He said the merger was not about rationalising and that there was less duplication between the universities than one might think.

One of Australia’s earliest universities, the University of Adelaide is more than 140 years old and belongs to the research-intensive Group of Eight. The University of SA has fewer than 30 years history and does far less research, yet in recent years it has grown strongly in student numbers and research profile.

“We have different histories, we tend to teach different students. We’ve evolved in ways which make us complementary rather than duplicative,” Professor Rathjen said.

He also downplayed the possibility of staff cuts: “We’re looking at this more as a growth opportunity than as an opportunity for rationalisation of staff.”

Yesterday, the two universities released a discussion paper that asks for public submissions on the merger proposal by September 21.

Prepared by the Nous Group, the paper lists the opportunities and the risks of a merger. Among the latter are a larger university losing the “personalised experience” for students and staff, the opportunity cost of managing the merger, and the possible difficulty of servicing different but over­lapping student markets.

If the merger were to go ahead, it would leave Adelaide’s third and smallest university, Flinders, competing against a mega-institution more than 2½ times as large.

Flinders University vice-chancellor Colin Stirling said he was not interested in his institution joining up with the other two, as has been mooted several times in recent years.

“Would the state of SA benefit from having a single public university? I don’t think so,” he said.

He conceded the merger would “change the landscape somewhat” but it was a matter for the other two universities; Flinders would pursue its strategic direction ­“irrespective of what happens”.

“We have been competing extremely strongly in terms of domestic student demand. We are by far and away the fastest growing international university in South Australia. In research terms, we’re growing very strongly,” he said.