Vision statement is a laudable but pricey wish list for new SA university

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.

Full marks to the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia for aiming high in their very ambitious vision statement for the new university they hope will arise out of the merger of their two institutions.

In a vision statement released this week they set a high, even utopian, standard for success for the new university. And there’s nothing wrong with setting stretch goals. They concentrate the mind and can spur highly productive effort if everyone involved believes they are realistic.

How do the new goals for the merged Adelaide University stack up? According to the statement, the new university is going to be either the best in Australia, or nearly the best, in virtually everything.

The list is long. Top in graduate employment, excellence in student experience, online learning of dazzling quality, every student getting entrepreneurship experience, abundant placements with industry, equity and access levels for disadvantaged students at new heights, a top five educator in Australia for regional and remote students, a complete research value chain (discovery, translation and commercialisation) across all disciplines, sustainably a world’s top 100 university, and a “destination of choice for the best global researchers, innovators, thinkers and entrepreneurs”.

What’s not to like? The answer is that there’s everything to like, and it’s all possible to achieve, provided that a very large quantity of money is available.

And that’s the clue to what this vision statement is. It’s a money play. The two universities are in an advantageous position few higher education institutions are in. The state government wants a merger and the universities will present Premier Peter Malinauskas with a plan for a world-class institution with every bell and whistle, along with the enticing promise – all this is yours if you invest this large sum.

Malinaukas has made no secret of the fact he wants this merger to happen. He has set himself up to be shaken down. In June the feasibility study and business case for the merger will be complete and the Premier will see how much the universities say they need to do the deal – although there are sure to have been preliminary discussions in which he has received clear hints.

The universities’ wish list will not be cheap. Not only the merger costs but also investing in student support programs, new online learning systems, bulked-up research, and attracting new talent.

If the universities can extract a large sum from the SA government I will applaud them. But it will also be fair to ask whether spending it on a merger is the best way to achieve all the laudable goals they have outlined.