In 2025, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can still be felt on the Australian Higher Education sector. However, issues in university governance were present long before the pandemic. Now in our 5th year post the pandemic, institutions such as the new Adelaide University are discussing models of education delivery previously which do not align with the community’s traditional view of our higher education sector. Universities should be listening to student voices now more than ever.
The majority of university governing members are appointed and do not interact with the broader stakeholder community: the students. Student positions in university governance groups have frequently been described as tokenistic by the students filling those positions. Many boards use this membership as a way to inform rather than be informed by the students. The result of this approach is a top- down information delivery system where decisions are made that broadly affect student bodies without appropriately consulting those students first. Furthermore, universities currently operate under a self-regulation model where internal audits
are conducted that are reported to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). Critically, universities do not hold public meetings of their governing bodies, and do not hold general meetings, thereby limiting the stakeholder’s ability to appoint independent reviewers in a transparent manner.
Read our submission to the Senate Inquiry into University Governance and our submission to the Expert Council on University Governance here:
