Australia¡¯s opposition will review university fees, reintroduce the ¡°50 per cent pass rule¡±, reclaim veto rights on research grants, regulate vice-chancellors¡¯ salaries and ¡°leave no stone unturned¡± to stamp out campus antisemitism if it wins the forthcoming federal election.

The Liberal-National party coalition may also scuttle the proposed Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) if it wins the poll, which is due to take place by mid-May.

¡°We see no compelling case to proceed with the Atec,¡± shadow education minister Sarah Henderson told Universities Australia¡¯s ¡®Solutions Summit¡¯. ¡°This is another layer of education bureaucracy at a significant cost, which will not take our universities forward.¡±

In a frank address to the conference, Henderson laid out a higher education policy platform centred around the ¡°key principle that Australian students must come first¡±.

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She said the coalition remained in favour of the Job-ready Graduates (JRG) changes it had introduced in 2021, but would review the reforms if it won government ¡°in line with what our legislation said we would do¡±.

Henderson berated the government for not having completed the review ¡°which was meant to have happened in mid-2022. Labor has undertaken at least 19 separate [education] reviews except for this one.¡±

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She said a coalition government would reinstate the "50 per cent pass rule", which was introduced as part of the JRG reforms but abolished on the recommendation of the Universities Accord panel. ¡°We don¡¯t believe there are enough safeguards to protect struggling students from leaving university with no qualification and a large student debt,¡± she told the conference.

Her party would also consider ways to ¡°better shine a light on the sector¡±, including an ¡°Australian universities performance index¡± offering ¡°transparent, easily accessible information¡± on completion rates, student satisfaction, course quality and cost.

Henderson said a coalition government would ¡°seek to reverse¡± last year¡¯s changes to the Australian Research Council (ARC), which took responsibility for approving most research grants out of the education minister¡¯s hands.

¡°Under our Westminster system of government, the buck stops with the government of the day and not an unelected board,¡± she said. ¡°We will take research integrity seriously and will hold the ARC to account for its enforcement of grant conditions.¡±

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Henderson said the government had ¡°outsourced¡± the ¡°hard work¡± of higher education policy to Atec, which was set to commence within months even though no legislation was yet in place.

She indicated that a coalition government would not honour the government¡¯s appointment of Universities Accord chair Mary O¡¯Kane as interim chief commissioner of Atec, and said the selection of fellow accord panellist Barney Glover as a commissioner raised a ¡°potential conflict of interest¡± given that he was also commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia.

Henderson said universities must be governed by ¡°strong and principled leaders¡± and overseen by a ¡°tough and feared regulator¡±. She said the salaries of public universities¡¯ vice-chancellors should be set by the Commonwealth Remuneration Tribunal and not universities¡¯ governing bodies. ¡°In this cost-of-living crisis the current situation, frankly, does not meet the pub test.¡±

She said the coalition would force universities to overwrite a new definition of antisemitism that they adopted on 24 February and replace it with the ¡°more robust¡± International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition.

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A coalition government would also implement a national higher education code on antisemitism, and require universities to ¡°fully cooperate¡± with a new antisemitism taskforce led by the Australian Federal Police. ¡°Everyone has the right to be safe on a university campus,¡± she said. ¡°Academic freedom must not be used to falsely cloak incidents of antisemitism.¡±

Henderson reiterated her party¡¯s intention to deliver a ¡°tougher¡± cap on international students. ¡°We will have more to say [on that] in the coming weeks,¡± she said.

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com