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Sectoral Tensions Surface
22 May 2004
The troubled topic of 'Industrial Reform in the University
Sector' was the focus of a national conference in Sydney this
week.
Since local enterprise bargaining (EB) replaced the centralised
wage-fixing system in the mid-1990s the internal dynamics of
universities have changed significantly.
The move to EB was based on the belief that the industrial
negotiations that characterised business could be equally well
applied to universities, as they too were being expected to operate
increasingly as businesses.
For many that is a fundamentally flawed assumption. It was a
period nevertheless, when the Commonwealth Government disengaged
from a direct responsibility for funding university salary
increases, and also initiated the serious erosion of operating
grants. This in turn, of course, reduced the capacity of
universities to pay their staff appropriately and provide the span
of industrial work conditions they would like and was deserved,
especially by the highly qualified.
Over that period of nearly a decade, student numbers have almost
doubled, operating grants have been cut, staff-student ratios have
worsened, the proportion of casual staff has increased, and
pressures on most staff have become greater. Whilst the Nelson
reforms address some of these issues, there remain the two huge
problems of whether indexation of university grants will be more
generously formulated to sustain the current improvements into the
future, and whether the funding from students through HECS has been
lifted too high whilst direct government funding has sunk too low.
Some universities, for example, now only receive 30 per cent of
their funding from government.
The result of these huge changes in universities is that every
time there is a salary increase there is a consequent diminution of
government monies available for other areas of the University.
Not unexpectedly the Conference unleashed the deep-seated
tensions that have arisen in the system over this period.
It has been a period when the major staff Union in particular
has had to safeguard conditions across the sector and their
'pattern bargaining' has confronted the purity of 'local enterprise
bargaining'.
The Universities' Union spokesperson criticised both the tactics
of the staff unions and the lack of clarity about what the agendas
of governments have really been.
The student spokesperson told of the serious impact of
under-funding on students, as well as lack of staff consultation
opportunities, amongst a raft of problems they believe have eroded
the quality of the learning environment.
One vice-chancellor spoke passionately about local unions
demonising university management and suggested that
vice-chancellors, in particular, were characterised as obstructing
the improvements needed on salary and conditions, and therefore
staff could only be looked after by joining the Union.
I spoke on the increasing number of university stakeholders who
are now becoming more vocal, demanding, and sometimes intrusive
about change processes and performance and the likely long-term
impact on this University administration.
This whole complex area of industrial relations, pay and
conditions, the management of change, local leadership versus
imposed operating and reporting expectations is going to continue
to test the sector.
The likely scenario is that, as with the allied socially
significant area of health, we are going to continue to see growing
demands. More public and private resources will be needed to
sustain quality systems and develop world-competitive
infrastructure. More thinking needs to be done, not just on the
public-private balance of funding, but also on what are the
defining characteristics of a modern university and what are the
responsibilities of the various stakeholder groups.
For a modern university to become a major international force,
the sectoral tensions have to subside, and all the stakeholders
will have to respect their different and complementary roles, and
more clearly articulate their views, which must be academically and
financially sustainable, of how the University is to develop.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice Chancellor of the University
of the Sunshine Coast