Universities probe postponed as Labor delays Senate report

Vice-chancellors who faced a grilling from senators over their million-dollar salaries could be off the hook after a Senate inquiry was delayed.

From left, ANU vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell, Monash vice-chancellor Sharon Pickering, Melbourne vice-chancellor Nicola Phillips, University of Sydney vice-vhancellor Mark Scott, and Deakin vice-chancellor Iain Martin. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

A snap Senate inquiry into universities behaving badly will not report before the federal election, after Labor senators postponed the reporting date.

The four-month delay could let university vice-chancellors off the hook, as they may never be called to give evidence to the inquiry into university governance. Federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said Labor was “running scared from its own inquiry’’. “It is hard to have a real inquiry into university governance when the government won’t even let universities ­appear,’’ she said.

“This is a sham process designed to bury the crisis they’ve overseen in our universities.

“If (the Albanese government) believed in accountability, it would let universities appear and answer questions.”

The office of the Senate education and employment committee chairman, Labor senator Tony Sheldon, revealed on Thursday that the April 4 reporting date had been changed to August 1. Given the election must be held by May 17, the post-election reporting date places the inquiry in doubt.

Senate inquiries are put on hold during an election campaign, but once the new parliament resumes, all standing committees must meet to decide if they will continue inquiries with a post-election reporting date. The Labor-instigated inquiry has already heard alarming allegations of bullying, wage theft and conflicts of interest.

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency has told senators it needs stronger powers to crack down on systemic problems such as student safety and wage theft. And hundreds of academics have blown the whistle on “soft marking’’ and falling academic standards.

Aside from the Senate inquiry, federal Education Minister Jason Clare is awaiting recommendations from a new expert advisory council on university governance, which has met twice this year.

He said the council’s advice would help “make universities better places to study and work’’.

“The council is looking at everything from how universities pay staff, to the remuneration settings of senior university staff, and will report to education ministers later this year,’’ he said.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare is seeking advice on university governance from a pane of experts. Picture: Nikki Short/NewsWire

A spokesman for Mr Clare said the expert council had asked universities, state and territory governments, student groups, the National Tertiary Education Union and the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association to identify improvements to university governance by April 7.

He said the council had met twice, although “to allow the parties to talk freely and openly about governance matters, minutes have not been taken at these meetings’’.

Senator Henderson said Mr Clare was now “conducting several matters in secret’’.

“It is ironic that a council of experts established to consider governance matters would not be the most forthright with their own governance processes, like publishing minutes,’’ she said.