Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This government is dedicated to micromanaging our universities and it is useful to look at what universities need approval from the minister and from Canberra to do. They need approval to move students from one campus to another and to move courses from one campus to another. We have many universities now with more than one campus. If a vice-chancellor thinks it is a good idea to offer a course at a particular campus and not another, they have to check and get permission. They need permission to introduce new courses and to change the scheduling of courses from one semester to another. The only thing missing is reference to the politburo. They need approval from the minister to do these things. Why doesn’t this government let the managers manage? Our vice-chancellors are relatively well paid and they are all professional, respected people. Why don’t we let them get on with the job? I suspect it is for political reasons. I suspect this government does not want universities to have the power to close down a course here and open it there because it could be politically embarrassing in certain electorates. That is the only solution that I can think of, but it is a terrible way to run a university system.

Recently I was reading that Harvard University, arguably the best university in the world, certainly in the top three or four—

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