Legislation to bring necessary reforms to the ARC, our annual gala dinner, meeting with Minister Clare: Latest rundown of higher education
Our CEO Luke Sheehy 's message
The beauty of starting as CEO in a Parliamentary sitting week is that there has been no shortage of activity – not that I think that was ever going to be the case.?
Legislation to bring necessary reforms to the Australian Research Council passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday and is now before the Senate. We are keeping a close eye on its progress, noting the Coalition’s decision to oppose the Bill. Broadly speaking, we are supportive of the legislation as it will put strong governance, peer review and genuine transparency back at the core of the ARC through the establishment of the Board and the almost complete removal of the ministerial veto power.?
In other legislative movements this week, Minister Brendan O'Connor introduced legislation to tackle unscrupulous and non-genuine providers to improve the integrity of the vocational education and training sector. The measures in this Bill are similar to the steps government is taking to protect students in the university system, which we fully support.?
Australia’s future skills needs mean we need universities and VET providers working together to educate the skilled workers who will continue to drive our prosperity and ensure we are equipped to deal with the challenges and opportunities in front of us.?
Aside from meeting with Minister Jason Clare MP on my first morning, I have been busily getting across UA’s busy workplan as I have settled in this week. Preparations for the Solutions Summit are being finalised, with the event now just a couple of weeks away. I’m looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Canberra and feel very fortunate to have this opportunity so early in my tenure. It will be a fantastic opportunity to set our agenda for the busy reform year ahead.?
Our gala dinner at Parliament House on the Tuesday evening will be an opportunity to celebrate the contribution our universities, and the wonderfully talented people within them, make to the country. In the last fortnight, our people’s choice voting campaign concluded. Engagement from the Australian community exceeded expectations, with a final tally of over 35,000 votes. Our judging panel of eminent Australians also met to determine their winners. Through both judging processes, we now have our winners across three categories, and we look forward to Minister Clare presenting them with their awards during the ceremony at the dinner.?
Work continues on a number of submissions, and I thank your teams for engaging with us in our policy advocacy to government. This week, we finalised our response to the Higher Education Standards Panel’s review of the Higher Education Threshold Standards and the higher education regulatory framework in relation to student support, and we are also applying the final touches to our submission to the government’s consultation around the National Skills Passport.?
Thank you for all your support in my first week. As I said in my message on Wednesday, the opportunity to lead a sector as important and life changing as higher education is an honour and one that I intend to wholly embrace on your behalf.?
Luke Sheehy?
Chief Executive Officer, Universities Australia?
PARLIAMENTARY UPDATE?
?
领英推荐
CHIEF ECONOMIST’S UPDATE?
While the economy-wide unemployment rate has not increased by much in response to higher interest rates, the youth unemployment rate (for Australians aged 15-19 years old) has started to pick up. Across 2023, the average youth unemployment rate (12.3 per cent) was a full percentage point higher than in 2022 (11.3 per cent). In 2020, the Department of Education noted that a percentage point increase in the youth unemployment rate could be expected to see a similar percentage point increase in applications for higher education from year 12.?
?
MEDIA UPDATE?
Our media activity since December has generated 291 media items with a potential audience reach of more than 24 million people across online, print, radio and television platforms.?
?
SUBMISSIONS?
RECENT SUBMISSIONS?
?
IN PROGRESS?
View all submissions on the UA website.?