National Press Club address: Think global or risk disappointment, university head warns

Professor Paul Greenfield AO, Vice-Chancellor and President, the University of Queensland and Chair, the Group of Eight

Wednesday 4 May 2011, National Press Club, Canberra, 11.45am

New national ‘quality’ arrangements for higher education will lead to disappointment for students and the Australian community without international benchmarking, the chair of the peak body for research-intensive universities will tell the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Chair of the Group of Eight (Go8) Professor Paul Greenfield argues that a defining issue for the future of universities is how to earn and maintain respect in an increasingly tough global marketplace.

“Learning in Australia’s higher education system should be of international quality," he said.

"If we are not prepared to fund it sufficiently then we should not claim it to be what it is not.

"The Government’s current policy is to produce more graduates at lower costs but the result will be a further blow-out in student staff ratios leading to less intensive student interaction with teachers and a lower quality learning experience.

“The overall student staff ratio in Australian universities has risen from 12 to 1 in the mid-1990s to 20 to 1 today.

“At an international level we are ‘off the pace’ in teaching and learning.

“Quality is not some minimum standard set by a group such as the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) - important though that may be - but must be measured against international benchmarks.

“The government’s new research rating system, ERA, at least attempts to compare university
research on international standards, but there is no similar angle for learning and teaching in TEQSA.

“To continue to be a major economic earner for the country Australian higher education must obsess about being internationally competitive and cannot rely on any inherent comparative advantage.”

BOOKINGS: http://www.npc.org.au/speakers/professor-paul-greenfield.html

FOR INFORMATION: Kerrie Thornton, Go8 Communications Director, 02 6239 5488