University of Adelaide and University of SA agree to merge

South Australia’s two largest universities, University of Adelaide and UniSA, have agreed to push ahead with a plan to merge in 2026.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas announcing the merger of the University of Adelaide and the University of SA on Sunday. Picture: Emma Brasier

South Australia’s two biggest universities will push ahead with a merger with the strong backing of state Premier Peter Malinauskas, who says it will create 1200 extra jobs and boost the state’s economy by $500m a year by 2034 when the merged institution is bedded down.

The state Labor government announced on Sunday it would back the merger of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia with a $115m payment in exchange for taking over surplus university land, a $30m grant to attract more international students, and a $300m perpetual fund investment whose earnings will support the new university.

After spending six months working on the merger plan, the governing councils of both universities last week voted to give it the green light, with the new university scheduled to commence operations at the beginning of 2026.

Mr Malinauskas said the merged institution, to be called Adelaide University, offered a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity for the state and “would have the scale and resources to be sustainably positioned in the top 100 in the world”. The new university has set itself hard-to-achieve twin goals of being both a research powerhouse closely connected with industry, and offering high-quality, job-ready qualifications to students, including those from disadvantaged groups who need extra academic support.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said he welcomed the merger. “This is a big deal. It is the biggest ever merger of two universities ever, anywhere in the world,” he said.

The merger can only go ahead if the Premier can pass legislation in the state’s upper house, which Labor does not control. Mr Malinauskas told The Australian on Sunday it would be “desperately disappointing” if his bill to set up Adelaide University did not pass.

He said he was hopeful that when the Liberal opposition and the upper house crossbench “sit down and work through the detail of this proposal, they would say that it is fundamentally in the interest of the state economy”.

Neither the universities nor the state government have released detailed information to justify the merger. Andrew Miller, SA division secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union, warned that making the wrong decision on a merger “could be catastrophic”, and called for an open and independent inquiry – either by a parliamentary committee or independent commission – before it goes ahead. “This is such a massive undertaking there have to be no regrets,” he said on Sunday.

The two universities walked back an earlier promise that the merger would not lead to net job losses. This has been replaced by a guarantee of no retrenchments or forced redundancies until 18 months after the new university commences operations.

Adelaide University faces major merger costs, including creating new courses, aligning the two universities’ IT platforms – including their learning management systems – and paying for staff redundancies if they occur.

Mr Malinauskas said the two universities would have to work within the financial package offered by the government. Asked to confirm there would be no money for the merger from the SA government above that already promised, he said: “That’s right.”

University of Adelaide vice-chancellor Peter Hoj and University of SA vice-chancellor David Lloyd said both universities would also invest their own money in the merger, approximately matching the government contribution.

The vice-chancellors said they believed the new university would “in the medium and longer term, be of higher national and international standing than anything we could achieve individually”.

The new institution is planned to grow into a major research university with close links to industry and aims to boost its research earnings by $100m a year by 2034. Professor Hoj said the merger would also release about $50m a year to spend on research.

The prestigious Group of Eight, which represents Australia’s research-intensive universities, and to which the University of Adelaide belongs, has already invited the new university to join, even though its research intensity and world ranking will initially fall.