Page 4770 - Week 11 - Thursday, 20 October 2011
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In addition, what a surprise it is about the estimated transaction costs of more than $20 million, especially as another of Professor Parker’s demands was that the ACT government would transfer an agreed list of CIT assets to the University of Canberra. This gives even more significance to the question of whether any new relationship between the university and the institute would be a merger or a takeover—or what. And what about the financial arrangements associated with any merger?
I want to mention another aspect of the proposal. Some of us will recall the so-called initiatives implemented by the then federal education minister, Mr Dawkins, in the 1980s—a Labor minister—combining many of the smaller universities and colleges of advanced education, or CAEs, as they were known, to form larger regional and other universities. There have been two broad outcomes from that merger activity. First, there has been the creation of what are now successful universities, such as Charles Sturt, Southern Cross and our own University of Canberra. Second, a new generation of technology-focused institutions emerged to fill the gaps left by the removal of the CAEs, such as our own Canberra Institute of Technology.
What has the history of the past 20 or 30 years shown us? It has shown that our community wants sustainable tertiary institutions. It shows that our community wants viable universities offering graduate and postgraduate courses. Our community also wants the provision of technology-oriented courses as an alternative to graduate and postgraduate courses.
You have to ask what is the motivation for this proposed merger. What other actions were taken or considered before this decision was reached? If the recent history of the ACT is any guide, the removal of CIT through a merger with UC will leave a gap in the range of tertiary courses our community wants. And it would seem to be a reasonable assumption that demands will emerge for a new institution to replace CIT with a similar or like organisation in probably very quick time.
There are many unanswered questions about this proposed merger. There are high-level questions about an overall strategy for tertiary education institutions in the ACT. There are then follow-on questions about the nature of tertiary education institutions and the number of tertiary education institutions. There are associated questions about the interests of the employees at each of these institutions, the size and location of the tertiary education institutions, the relationship between tertiary institutions and secondary education institutions, and the potential for pathways for students between secondary and tertiary education institutions. And what is it that the students want? One of the reasons students choose where they go is that some do not want to do a degree; they want to do something on the more practical side of things. That needs to be taken into account as well.
The only responsible action this Assembly can take on behalf of the people of the ACT, and the students of the ACT, is to refer this important matter to an Assembly committee for appropriate inquiry.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (3.57): The Greens have revised our position on this matter and will be moving an amendment to Ms Hunter’s previous amendment to
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