Universities back senate’s call for stronger governance

Universities and stakeholders have welcomed the contents of the Australian Senate report into the quality of university governance, published in December.

The report calls for stronger institutional oversight at the nation’s universities, restoration of the primacy of teaching and research functions and greater emphasis on the needs of staff, students and communities.

Universities Australia chief executive officer Luke Sheehy told University World News strong governance was essential to the health of the sector.

“Strong governance is critical because it builds trust and transparency and puts students, staff and communities at the centre of everything we do,” he said.

The Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson told University World News that Australia’s research-intensive universities were “absolutely committed to strengthening governance and delivering for Australia”, stressing that universities are “national assets – essential to the nation’s prosperity, security, and global standing”.

Thomson said the committee’s recognition of universities’ public good mission and the need for robust, transparent governance aligned closely with the Go8’s longstanding advocacy for a sector that delivers for students, the nation and the world.

The National Tertiary Education Union also welcomed the final report as a watershed moment for the sector. National President Dr Alison Barnes said the inquiry had finally placed long-running issues such as casualisation, wage theft and toxic workplace cultures firmly on the national agenda.

Barnes said the report’s eight recommendations provided a clear blueprint for reform but warned that their impact would depend entirely on whether governments chose to implement them in full.

Decades of corporatisation

When the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee tabled its long-awaited final report into the quality of university governance on 11 December 2025, it landed as more than another policy document.

For many staff, students and sector insiders, it marked a pivotal moment in a growing reckoning over how Australia’s public universities are run, who they serve, and whether their public mission has been eroded by decades of corporatisation.

The inquiry, which drew on more than 300 submissions and five public hearings, concluded that many Australian universities have drifted away from their core purpose of advancing public education and research.

Instead, senators found that governance structures increasingly resemble corporate boards, prioritising financial performance, managerial control and executive autonomy over academic quality, transparency and accountability.

Evidence presented to the committee went well beyond abstract governance theory. Staff and students described lived experiences of insecurity, exclusion and declining morale.

Casualisation emerged as one of the most consistent and troubling themes, with evidence showing that in some institutions up to 60% of undergraduate teaching is delivered by casual or insecure staff.

Many described being employed on short-term contracts with limited protections and little input into decisions that directly affect teaching quality and student outcomes.

Students told senators they felt sidelined by strategic decisions driven primarily by budget pressures rather than educational needs.

Senate committee chair Marielle Smith said the inquiry had exposed governance failures that were undermining trust in public institutions. She said universities were established for the public good and should be governed accordingly, warning that corporate-style models had weakened accountability and distanced decision-makers from staff and students.

Prioritisation of teaching and research

The eight recommendations are broad in scope but tightly focused on restoring the primacy of teaching and research. They call on state and territory governments to review university-establishing legislation to ensure public education and research are explicitly prioritised.

University councils would be required to have duties and performance assessments clearly tied to those missions. The report also urges the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) to strengthen governance guidance, develop new monitoring frameworks for course quality and staffing, and issue a statement of expectations on academic governance.

Other recommendations include mandatory public reporting on casual and insecure employment, annual reviews of teaching quality and staffing balance, and stronger oversight of student interests and institutional reputation.

Thomson said the Go8 strongly backed the committee’s focus on student experience, noting the group has consistently argued that students must be central to university policy and practice. “Every reform must be measured by its impact on student experience and outcomes,” she told University World News.

She also welcomed the committee’s emphasis on research, saying a number of recommendations reinforced the primacy of research as a core university function. Research, she said, must be treated as a national priority rather than an optional extra, with sustained and strategic investment critical to Australia’s innovation capacity, resilience and global leadership.

Sheehy said the Senate committee’s work complemented existing reform efforts already underway, including the Expert Council on University Governance.

“This report complements the Expert Council on University Governance’s work and various other initiatives to strengthen governance in our sector,” he said, adding that Universities Australia would continue to engage with governments and sector leaders.

“It’s important work, and we’ll continue to engage with the government, the University Chancellors Council and others to improve and strengthen governance for the good of those we serve – our students, staff and communities.”

Growing political and public concerns

The recommendations build on the committee’s interim findings earlier in 2025, which included proposals to cap vice-chancellor salaries, improve transparency around consultant spending and strengthen disclosure of executive remuneration.

Together, the findings reflect growing political and public concern about executive excess and opaque decision-making at publicly funded institutions.

Several universities have already become flashpoints in the wider governance debate, most notably the Australian National University. Former vice-chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell resigned in September 2025 after months of controversy over restructures, job losses and cost-cutting measures.

Her departure followed sustained staff protests and criticism of the university’s governance culture, with TEQSA commencing a compliance review.

Interim Vice-Chancellor Professor Rebekah Brown has pledged to rebuild trust, but staff representatives say the ANU case illustrates deeper systemic failures of council oversight.

Governance tensions have also surfaced at other institutions, including the University of Technology Sydney, where staff delivered an overwhelming vote of no confidence in Andrew Parfitt, vice-chancellor. The NTEU has cited such cases as evidence that governance failures are widespread rather than isolated.

Funding models review needed

The governance inquiry also intersects with broader debates about university funding. Thomson said the Go8 acknowledged the committee’s identification of the urgent need to review and reform funding models, pointing to declining public investment and the structural distortions created by the Job-Ready Graduates scheme.

She said the group continued to call for a sustainable funding framework that enables universities to deliver on their public mission.

She also noted that independent senator David Pocock had highlighted the critical importance of research funding and the need to refocus universities on their public good role, aligning with the Go8’s position that funding reform must sit alongside governance change.

According to Thomson, the committee’s report represents an important step towards addressing deep structural problems driven by Australia’s distorted funding model.

However, she said genuine reform would require governments to enable better use of existing resources, fund the full cost of research, cut unnecessary red tape that diverts resources away from students, staff and communities, and abolish the Job-Ready Graduates scheme as a priority.

With the report now tabled, attention has shifted to whether governments will act. State and territory governments have been urged to review the legislation underpinning public universities, while at the federal level proposed changes to TEQSA’s standards will depend on consultation outcomes and political will.