The collaborative nature of Australia¡¯s recent higher education reforms and its embrace of massification provide a ¡°great model¡± for the UK sector to copy, according to experts.

Many of the 47 recommendations of the Universities Accord final report, which took more than a year to conduct after it was commissioned by an incoming Labour government,?were accepted in the recent budget.

A new left-wing government entering at a time of fiscal challenge and a difficult political climate for higher education are potential similarities that the UK sector shares, according to Andy Westwood, professor of government practice at the University of Manchester.

Professor Westwood, a former special adviser to Labour universities ministers, said that if the party returned to government in the UK it would want to be active, to ¡°pull levers¡±, and think about higher education¡¯s future role.

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¡°Even though the English sector has not been short of reviews in recent years, many of them have been very technical,¡± he told a webinar hosted by the Higher Education Policy Institute.

¡°What we¡¯ve been missing is a really big conversation about what it¡¯s for. The accord took that on boldly, on the front foot and set that out.¡±

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Libby Hackett, chief executive of the Sydney-based James Martin Institute for Public Policy, said the very nature of the accord ¨C an agreement between the government and universities ¨C helped it have a unifying message.

¡°Right from the get-go, the government set this out as a collaborative model, as an engagement of partnership, it was positive and constructive in tone,¡± said Ms Hackett, former chief executive of the UK¡¯s University Alliance mission group.

¡°It very much felt like a partnership and a collaborative approach with the sector leaning in.¡±

The accord proposed a target for 80 per cent of working-age Australians to have tertiary qualifications by 2050.

Ms Hackett said the framework of the accord allowed it to ¡°smash through the rhetoric¡± around expanding higher education with a positive, evidence-based message that was linked to growth and equity.

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¡°What the accord did was to make it a shared responsibility of government and universities to aim towards these equity targets,¡± she said.

¡°This shared mission approach came together right from the start.¡±

Another proposal is for?a tertiary education commission, which would provide ¡°oversight, coordination and expert advice¡± to the higher education sector.

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Duncan Ivison, the former University of Sydney deputy-vice chancellor who will join the University of Manchester as vice-chancellor later this year, said the accord showed that the massification of higher education was a ¡°good thing and a just thing to do¡±.

¡°That the accord has provided a framework for a just way to embrace the massification of higher education is a really powerful framework for us to think about in the UK,¡± Professor Ivison said.

Australian sector policy has been dominated by culture wars, a revolving door of ministers and bad policy, according to Professor Ivison, but the collaborative nature of the Australian process should act as a ¡°great model¡± for the UK.

¡°The fact that we had a new government committed to taking a systematic review of the higher education system and doing it in a very partnership way was a pretty powerful change in both the tone and the way in which higher education policy was being developed,¡± he said.

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¡°That¡¯s one really important and positive message for UK higher education to think about.¡±

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com