The University of Queensland welcomes the Report by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) into its examination of the events which took place in 2010 that ultimately led to the resignations of the former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Greenfield, and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Keniger.
The University is pleased that after an exhaustive examination by the CMC, taking 21 months, the CMC has confirmed that:
• consistent with their statutory obligation under the University’s governing legislation, “...the Chancellor and the Senate genuinely acted in what they believed to be the best interests of the University” in the handling of the investigation into the events which led to the resignations, and in the Senate accepting those resignations; and
• “since the events in 2010-11, the University has undertaken significant work in the area of integrity and misconduct management” and that the University’s commitment to keeping the public informed of, and its transparency in relation to, its internal culture survey “is an example to the public sector”.
The University has noted and taken on board the conclusion of the CMC that it demonstrated a lack of transparency in its public statements and in its statements to its own staff.
The decision of the Senate to accept the resignations on the basis that the reasons for the resignations would not be made public was difficult, having regard to the competing interests of the avoidance of operational disruption and reputational damage on the one hand, and the promotion of transparency on the other hand.
On balance, the Senate considered the acceptance of the resignations on that basis to be in the best interests of the University.
The response by the University to the external release of information concerning the resignations was similarly subject to competing interests.
The University accepts, however, that its response was not well handled and acknowledges that it lacked the transparency called for in the circumstances.
The fact that the University has learnt from the events giving rise to the resignations of Professors Greenfield and Keniger is evidenced by the CMC’s positive endorsement of the measures taken since 2011 by the University to address integrity and accountability issues.
Those measures have included:
• the introduction of an Integrity and Accountability Reform Program;
• the implementation of an externally administered culture survey with input from over 4300 staff and action to implement the outcomes from that survey;
• oversight of the measures by eminent people from outside the University to confirm the appropriateness of the measures and progress in implementation.
Such positive developments have required buy-in from across the university, and staff are to be thanked for bringing about these improvements.
As further evidence that the University has improved the way in which it handles matters of public importance, the University’s recent handling of an alleged case of research misconduct was described by Research Australia as “text book”. Research Australia went on to say in a media release that:
“The transparent way the University undertook their response on the matter sets an important benchmark.”
The University looks forward to continuing its positive role in reforming and improving levels of transparency and is pleased to have received positive comments from the CMC and Research Australia for its efforts in this regard since the events of 2010-11.
We are also very pleased to have been recently recognised as an outstanding global university, being ranked 43 in the world by the QS rankings of world universities.
Indeed, in the past 12 months UQ’s position as a top one per cent global university has improved in the four key world university rankings systems: the Academic Rankings of World Universities, Times Higher Education World University Rankings, QS, and the National Taiwan University Ranking.
Finally, the University also notes the tabling in Parliament of a report by the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Commissioner (report 92) into an earlier draft CMC report.
The competing interests faced by the Senate at the time have been recognised by the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Commissioner.
In the Commissioner’s Report tabled in Parliament he notes that the University was legally constrained in what it could say publicly about the resignations and consequently, it “does not mean that the Executive did not have due regard to integrity, accountability and transparency”.
Media contact: Fiona Kennedy (07) 3365 1384 or Michael Duthie (07) 3346 7691.
