Mushrooming compliance demands in Australian higher education are drowning out the other ¡°core responsibilities¡± of governance, according to La Trobe University chancellor and former Victorian premier John Brumby.

Mr Brumby told a Melbourne forum that universities¡¯ governing bodies had more onerous workloads than boards in other sectors. ¡°The demands on university councils are¡­more than your routine corporate or not-for-profit board,¡± he told the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa) conference. ¡°You could spend 60, 70, 80 hours a week just going into the detail of all of the governance requirements.¡±

Mr Brumby said monitoring and compliance was just one of university councils¡¯ ¡°core responsibilities¡±, which also included overseeing strategy and finance, appointing vice-chancellors and monitoring their performance. ¡°We have an obligation, above all others, to ensure a safe workplace,¡± he added. ¡°It¡¯s university councils which, in so many ways, set the tone for culture.¡±

Governing bodies needed to stay abreast of ¡°social licence issues¡±, he added. ¡°Things like accountability, performance, value for money, employability of our students, student support, wage payments, gender violence on campus ¨C all of those issues are important.¡±

É«ºÐÖ±²¥

Mr Brumby denied a suggestion that chancellors were ¡°failing in their role¡± of building trust in universities. He said institutions of all types were experiencing a trust deficit, as social media fuelled an explosion of populism and polarisation.

¡°That means the expectations are higher,¡± he told the conference. ¡°We¡¯ve got to be open to criticism. The truth is that we¡¯ve got to lift our performance.¡±

É«ºÐÖ±²¥

He said his council had been ¡°profoundly disappointed¡± when La Trobe was found to have underpaid its casual staff by A$5.4 million (?2.8 million). ¡°That was a failure of our governance and our administration,¡± he said, adding that the university had changed its culture as well as its systems to ¡°tackle¡­the disease rather than just focusing on the symptom¡±.

Mark Rigotti, chief executive of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, said universities were seen as places to ¡°get educated and have a better life. That¡¯s a very hard proposition to sustain if people don¡¯t trust you,¡± he told the conference.

Mr Rigotti said the lack of trust in institutions could be shrugged off as ¡°a flash in the pan¡± that had been ¡°weaponised¡± to sell newspapers or win elections. Alternatively, university leaders could accept the criticism as ¡°true, in which case it raises questions around who you are and what you stand for¡±.

Another interpretation was that ¡°there¡¯s elements of truth in it, but it¡¯s been over-amplified. Either way¡­the sector needs to come up with a response.¡±

É«ºÐÖ±²¥

He said over-regulation was ¡°chilling¡± productivity in universities and elsewhere by monopolising governing bodies¡¯ time and fostering a ¡°risk-averse¡± climate. Directors were eschewing aspirations of best practice and instead aiming for ¡°minimum compliance levels¡±.

Mr Brumby said governing bodies needed to focus on the ¡°big¡± issues rather than allowing themselves to be distracted by compliance minutiae. ¡°It is important to separate out the wood from the trees,¡± he told the conference.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com