Universities will be expected to pursue “best-practice and meaningful consultation” over major restructure proposals, and to involve staff and students “prior to decisions being made”, under recommendations accepted by the Australian government.
Institutions will also be obliged to set minimum quotas for governing council members who have expertise in higher education and public administration.
In a report tabled in parliament, the federal government has supported all 12 recommendations from last September’s interim report of the Senate Education and Employment Committee’s 2025 inquiry into university governance.
The government has also supported, or supported in principle, five of the eight recommendations from the inquiry’s final report in December.
Canberra had already committed to many of the reforms after receiving a separate report from the Expert Council on University Governance, which urged the insertion of eight new “governance principles” into the threshold standards by which Australian universities are regulated.
