Universities want multiple new deals with government

Australia’s university sector has called for the proposed Australian Universities Accord to be divided into a series of mini-accords, in which each university’s agreement with the government would reflect its needs and strengths, writes Jenny Sinclair for Research Professional News.

In responses this month to a discussion paper in Mary O’Kane’s review of the Australian Universities Accord, a proposed agreement between higher education and the government, universities called for individual accords and warned of fragmented research priorities and the need to fully fund all university research.

In its submission, the vice-chancellors’ group Universities Australia proposed “partnership agreements” to quantify what different universities should be doing, with minimum grants baked into the deals. The Australian Technology Network of Universities said that “a single accord with each university would be the mechanism for providing secure funding to support the mission of a university and, over time, to enable greater differentiation in the missions of universities”.
Full report on the Research Professional News site