Public must be sold on reform’s benefits: Thomson

A recent federal government of higher education policy under the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull has injected optimism into the national debate but university leaders must bring the public with them in the push for reform. That was the message from Go8 chief executive Vicki Thomson at the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit in Sydney on Tuesday. Addressing delegates, Thomson said recent public statements from the prime minister highlighting the value of research and innovation had invigorated the sector. “It is particularly positive to learn that the new team’s first major policy announcement will be on innovation, and before Christmas," she said. "It’s been some time since we have seen Minister Pyne so enthused and positive. It feels as if overnight our raison d’etre is finally in sharp political focus, and in a positive rather than an acrimonious way. There is a different dynamic at play now – we, as a sector, must harness it.” However, Thomson then warned that the kind of policy reforms needed to secure the long-term future and growth of the national higher education sector could be achieved only with the support of the Australian public. On this front, she lamented, universities had largely failed in “community positioning”. “The Australian community has been blindsided and confused by the polarised higher education funding debate,” she said. “We have not spelt out as well as we could why we are essential to every Australian or even how much we deliver into the economy. The international education sector alone brought in $17.6 billion last year and is estimated to be expanding by $1 billion a year. “We must have the community onside, and it can’t be until it truly understands our value … It is our job to express the value proposition in clear, simple and positive language.” Thomson said that rather than seeing universities as taxpayer-funded ivory towers perpetually asking for more money to further their own ends, Australians needed to understand the myriad benefits reaped from the work of university researchers for the community. “From preventing depression among young Australians, to saving people’s eyesight in the developing world, Australia’s universities make an indispensable contribution,” she said. “Think of the many, many hundreds of thousands of people whose lives and lifestyles would be affected if this research could not continue.” Thomson also reiterated the Go8’s recent push to tie research funding more closely to excellence, saying that despite some “febrile castigation from a few in the sector” her member universities remained committed to their “sensible and logical stance”. “University research should be directed to supporting excellence – the best research in Australia, wherever it’s done,” she said.