Our Universities Matter

About the campaign

Universities are important civic and educational institutions. While they differ in their character, operations and governing structures, it is by their commonalities that they are internationally recognised as universities – institutions that encompass teaching and research activities, that create new knowledge and disseminate it to all parts of society. This is why higher education is defined as a ‘public good’.

A key feature which distinguishes universities from other higher education institutions is their role in research and research education – particularly, the education of postgraduate research students at Masters and PhD levels. This is critical in the creation of new knowledge as well as new scholars.

Universities are important because they educate undergraduate and postgraduate students, produce high quality research and scholarship, create skilled graduates for our professions, engage with communities, business, governments and other organisations to disseminate knowledge, provide services, and generate social and economic benefits. They maintain freedom of enquiry through informed and critical commentary, in both the scholarly world and in public debate.

Making our universities better

Over the last 11 years, universities have battled against inadequate funding, excessive federal government interference, increasing privatisation and corporatisation, and undermining of the principles of freedom of inquiry and expression.

The advent of a new federal Labor Government that has publicly committed itself to fixing some of the problems in higher education caused by its predecessor, coinciding with a full round of Collective Bargaining, presents us with a unique opportunity to harness the public policy debates about the future of the sector and relate them directly to the issues we want dealt with in bargaining.

The Rudd Government has announced major reviews over the next 12 months into the higher education sector’s future directions, research quality assurance and funding mechanisms, and research training.

The ‘Review of Australian Higher Education’ will report on the sector’s future direction, its capacity to meet the needs of the Australian community and economy, and the options available for ongoing reform. This will include improving the sector’s funding arrangements and developing funding ‘compacts’ between the Government and institutions.

The reviews into research will look at a replacement for the discredited Research Quality Framework (RQF) and developing the next generation of researchers.

NTEU will seek the support of staff, universities and the community in campaigning for real improvements for the sector from the outcomes of these reviews.