Senators and Reps should get involved in University management

CAPA applauds the eleventh recommendation of the Senate Committee report, Universities in Crisis, that Commonwealth parliamentary representatives or nominees should play a role in university governance.

"The participation of Commonwealth parliamentarians makes a lot of sense, since it is they who must make decisions about the institutions' funding," said CAPA President John Byron today.

"More to the point, though, it is probably a crucial measure, if the role and functions of universities are to be understood by those who effectively control their welfare."

Universities' public funding comes predominantly from the Commonwealth. However, universities exist by virtue of acts of State and Territory Parliaments, and it is these legislatures that appoint members to most institutions' Senates and Councils.

"Universities are operating under dire conditions, and those who serve on their governing bodies are often well placed to understand at least some of the difficulties," continued Mr Byron.

"Some members of this Government might have been less inclined to participate in the wholesale destruction of our public university system under Dr Kemp's draconian regime had they been in a position to appreciate the morbid effects of the cost-cutting measures they approved.

"Inquiries such as this one would be needed less urgently, and would be harder for a recalcitrant and ignorant Government to spurn, if there were up to eighty Senators and Representatives in possession of first-hand experience of the plight of our universities," he argued.

"While students and staff remain the most relevant source of advice on what actually goes on in the front line of education - there's nothing like recent battle experience, after all - Commonwealth parliamentarians would be in a position to engage directly with colleagues on University Senates and Councils who do have such experience."

University accountability would be vastly improved by involving Commonwealth representatives in their decision-making processes, and Commonwealth parliamentarians would also be accountable in a very real way to those who must manage the institutions in the context of Government policy.

"The Committee is clearly interested in ensuring that the public university system we rebuild from its current parlous state is to be characterised by accountability, consultation, and participation," observed Mr Byron.

"It is a pity the present Government has preferred to operate aloof from the system for which it has responsibility, and refuses to support a recommendation that might make some of its members sharpen their attention when the nation's most valuable asset - its education system - is being sold down the river in the party room," he concluded.