[Greens-Media] Universities Have Stakeholders Not Shareholders

[Franks, Office]

In State Parliament today the Greens challenged the Weatherill government on backroom plans to strip staff and student numbers on the Flinders University Council.

Greens' Higher Education and Youth Spokesperson Tammy Franks today raised concerns in State Parliament about discussions between the State Government and senior management of the Flinders University of South Australia to strip staff and student representation on the university's governing body.

An email* was sent by the Vice Chancellor yesterday informing staff that the State Government had indicated these proposed changes and would consequently introduce legislation to amendment to the Flinders University of South Australia Act in State Parliament in coming months.

Ms Franks stated: "Without staff and students you simply don't have a University, yet backroom deals are being done to have students and staff seen, but not heard when it comes to university governance.

"This isn't the board of BHP-Billiton; it is the Council of a public university. The University doesn't have shareholders, it has stakeholders and those stakeholders are in danger of  being denied their rightful seat at the table.

"Both staff and students have a right to be appropriately engaged in the decision-making process of this institution and the proposed changes will strip those rights away.

"I would question the potential for a lone student to be able to influence the decision making process, without the support of at least one other peer as has been suggested. The Greens put this Government on notice we will not idly stand by if they do attempt to strip away the democratic fabric of our state's higher educational institutions," Ms. Franks concluded.

For further comment contact Jamnes Danenberg 0457 549 938

  *email below

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From: staff-bounces at flinders.edu.au [staff-bounces at flinders.edu.au] on behalf of Michael Barber [michael.barber at flinders.edu.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 18 September 2012 10:58 AM
To: 'staff at flinders.edu.au'
Subject: [Staff] Changing the Flinders University of South Australia Act
This message is from the Vice-Chancellor to all staff. If you are not a member of staff at Flinders University please ignore this message.
Changing the Flinders University of South Australia Act

The 2011 review of the University Council's structure and operation and subsequent Council discussions has established strong support within Council for greater flexibility to determine its own size and composition. The University has therefore approached the State Government about amending the legislation that governs the composition of the Council.

Council has formed the view that its membership must be predominantly external and that a smaller Council will facilitate more effective engagement of members and more effective decision-making.

In a dynamic higher education environment, Flinders must attract people to University Council with a diversity of skills and experience who can support the University to meet its strategic objectives. This may be more difficult to achieve with election of stakeholder representatives to a Council of reduced size.

It has been proposed to the State Government that the membership of Council should be no fewer than 12 and no greater than 20. The current Council's view is that a membership of 14 to 15 will achieve the necessary balance of skills and experience with the perceived benefits of smaller size.

The State Government has been very receptive to this proposed legislated change, which is in line with modern governance trends and similar to changes made to the legislation of universities in NSW. It is possible that amending legislation can be passed later this year or early next year. Elections to replace staff and student positions on Council which come to an end on 31 December 2012 have been postponed in the interim.

If the legislative changes are achieved, Council intends to retain the current ex officio members which include the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and Chair of Academic Senate. A minimum of one staff member, appointed or elected, and one student member will be retained in the new composition of Council.

The intended appointment of the President of the Students' Association to Council will ensure that the Council's discussions and decisions have input from the person having the most direct contact with the student body and understanding of the issues affecting students.

The University has been discussing potential transitional arrangements involving appointment rather than election of student representatives to Council for 2013, if amending legislation is not passed this year. In this event, elections for staff member positions on Council will proceed in February 2013.


Michael Barber
Vice-Chancellor