Page 1335 - Week 07 - Thursday, 24 August 1989
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therefore assist the further development of the institute in recognition of this important ACT role and it will be necessary to conclude an agreement with the institute covering its funding by the ACT Government. The ACT funding of the institute is significant, and in 1989 the institute will receive about $3.8m from the ACT Government.
Apart from these two qualifications, the Government endorses all the other recommendations of the committee's report and regards the report as an important contribution to setting appropriate future directions for ACT higher education. This inquiry has been of considerable value in focusing the complex issues involved in balancing national and ACT interests, and those of students, staff, institutions and the community generally.
The Government welcomes, and strongly supports, the committee's recommendation that the ANU and the new Canberra university move toward formal and informal collaborative arrangements covering such matters as cooperation in teaching and research, credit transfers, student housing, libraries and computing facilities. Regardless of the outcome of the amalgamation proposed, it is essential to develop a more cooperative system of higher education in the Territory, and all sections will benefit from the pooling of resources and distinctive strengths.
I would like to hope that the Australian Defence Force Academy will also, over time, strengthen its relationships with other institutions in the Territory and that the collaborative arrangements will extend to the other sectors of ACT education, including TAFE. A start in this direction has been made with a recent articulation agreement covering credit transfers concluded between the Institute of TAFE and the Canberra College of Advanced Education.
The Government also endorses the committee's recommendation that the Institute of Advanced Studies and the Faculties move toward greater cooperation and collaboration. The graduate school concept affords one means of making the resources of the ANU research schools available for a larger number of postgraduate students, and this concept has considerable merit. Amalgamation would extend this benefit to even larger numbers of postgraduate students. I look for the development of productive interaction between ANU research and ACT industry development and will be examining ways of fostering such interaction which will benefit both sides.
The location of the ANU in the Territory provides one of the great strengths of ACT education, and the national and international recognition and standing of the university are of direct benefit to the ACT community in a number of ways. The ACT community will benefit directly from strengthening of the work of the ANU in ways such as that proposed by the committee.
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