Day 1 - Solutions Summit

UA's annual conference often offers up surprises, unexpected counterpoints and juxtapositions that make you reflect on what is happening in the world. Today was no exception.

This morning, we heard first from Mary O'Kane and David Lloyd discussing the brick in the room that is the just-published 400-page Universities Accord Report. (Indeed, Mary O'Kane demonstrated how it can be used for weight training.)

Mary and David talked about the process that resulted in the Accord, as well its 47 recommendations, which, when including sub-bullets, cover 25 pages at the start of the report. It's an enormous tome which is essentially a 30-year plan for the higher education sector. As David pointed out, it's meant to last through at least eight federal elections, which means, well, let's just say a lot of politics is going to pass under the bridge between now and then.

Their gentle chat was followed up by a powerful personal and political statement on the role of universities and the current political crises facing the world, by Baroness Valerie Amos of University College, Oxford . I won't try to summarise Baroness Amos's comments, though I would hope she publishes her remarks, because he speech was tremendous. One comment that resonated during the Q&A with Alec Cameron was in response to a query about why it is that universities - both in the UK and Australia - are currently viewed with skepticism and why public trust is at a low.

"We focus too much on the government's agenda as opposed to the things we need to do," Baroness Amos said. Her point was that universities have found themselves in the middle of culture wars, hotly contested politics, freedom of expression, and other issues. Instead, she said university leaders need to talk about what they do to make students' lives better, to transform communities and much more.

Baroness Amos also spoke forcefully about what it meant to be the first Black vice chancellor of a university in the United Kingdom. When she headed up 英国伦敦大学 - 亚非学院 , and since then, she has reflected on the impact the term "merit" has had in discouraging those from disadvantaged backgrounds from thinking they are good enough or deserving of the most senior leadership positions. More needs to be done to ensure the next generation of future leaders from disadvantaged backgrounds can see themselves in those leadership roles.

"Yes, it's difficult [to get to the top], but having the power is so much better than not having it," she concluded.

"Australia's productivity challenge" was the topic of another panel, This one chaired by Professor Barney Glover AO . Catherine de Fontenay of the Productivity Commission described universities' primary contribution to national productivity as via the quality of students graduating to employment.?(This was particularly interesting given how universities so often cite the economic impact of their research output.)

The incentives for universities to enhance teaching quality however are relatively weak, and can be observed through the QILT metrics reporting a large proportion of students who are dissatisfied with their university experience. Improving the quality of the sector's 'product' is therefore of the utmost importance to Australia's productivity.

Later in the afternoon Carolyn Evans of 澳大利亚格里菲斯大学 chaired a discussion on university autonomy and the role of regulation. Legendary company director and chancellor of 悉尼新南威尔士大学 David Gonski zoomed in from somewhere to share his perspective, while Alison Johns FRSA provided a UK perspective and Adrienne Nieuwenhuis shared the TEQSA approach. There was much discussion about finding the right amount of regulation, not so much that any chance of innovation is stifled, and not so little that institutions run amok. (The latter seems most unlikely, at least in Australia.)

The person with the toughest gig of the event must surely be Luke Sheehy the incoming CEO of Universities Australia . Luke acknowledged as much when he took to the podium at the start of the day, noting he had just finished his third week on the job. We all wish Luke well and hope he settles into the role and sets UA on a future course that will see it help the sector thrive, whatever the Accord and the politicians in Canberra manage to throw at it.

A UA conference wouldn't be complete without dinner in the Great Hall of Parliament House. Tonight guests were treated to another lesson in irrefutable social justice from the Minister for Education Jason Clare MP . Delegates were reminded just how large the education gap is between relatively wealthy, urban Australians and those from peri-urban, rural, regional, and first nations backgrounds. Further, the "invisible barrier" between vocational and higher education needs to broken down so that the sector can work as one. This is part of the purpose of the proposed Tertiary Education Commission.

The speech is well worth reading, particularly as it captures the essence of the Accord as well as Clare's and this Government's vision for the future. (It also has part of the Minister's own origin story in Fairfield in western Sydney, where he collected shopping trollies at the local Woolies and made cheese toast at Sizzler.)

No story about the Solutions Summit would be complete without a few photos from the incredible venue that is the Great Hall. Here are a couple.

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