Regulator faces juggling act in balancing need for innovation, quality

THE university regulator will be a major player in how the higher education sector evolves over the next 15 to 20 years.

THE university regulator will be a major player in how the higher education sector evolves over the next 15 to 20 years as the combined forces of decreasing government funding, aggressive new players and sophisticated technologies take their toll on the traditional comprehensive university.

A report released today by consultancy firm Ernst & Young says the national regulator will be challenged with creating an environment that allows innovation while maintaining quality. "If new models of higher education are to emerge, then TEQSA (the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) will have to strike a balance between keeping an eye on quality while leaving room for innovation," said Justin Bokor, lead author of the report, University of the Future.

The report posits three scenarios for the sector in 15 to 20 years.

The first is a more streamlined, efficient version of the status quo.

The second, dubbed the niche dominators model, contends that several universities will specialise by refining "the range of services and markets they operate in, targeting particular customer segments with tailored education".

The third scenario is the transformer model in which "private providers and new entrants carve out positions in the traditional sector and also create new markets that merge with higher education".

"If the regulatory model doesn't allow room for innovation to take place, that would be a big loss. We need new models for how teaching is delivered; that's TEQSA's challenge," Mr Bokor said.

His comments were backed by Fred Hilmer, vice-chancellor of the University of NSW, who said if the "current bias to large public universities" were to continue, then there would be room only for a slow pace of change.

"Politicians change very slowly and the regulatory environment is unlikely to change very dramatically. Governments aren't very good at taking their foot off the throats of anything. Even when they privatise sectors, they still want to control it."

RMIT vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner agreed, saying the "contradictory forces coming from the regulatory environment" would greatly influence any changes driven by the market.

While she felt the report also did not grasp the rate of change in the sector in the past 30 years, "it does come to grips with changes around contestability of markets and technological change".

The report says that while the campus-based university will not disappear, it will be under threat, with a small number of institutions forced to shut their doors. While a handful of the most elite will survive unchanged, most will be forced to change business models, outsource administration, and create partnerships with industry and a raft of companies, whether they are content creators, distributors or providers.