Higher Education: ‘It’s Time’… To Change The Policy Framework

20 February 2008

Professor Ian Chubb

We now have an opportunity to reposition higher education for the future and to move away from tinkering and adjusting rather than coherently changing. While it will take some time to unstitch the knotted fabric of accumulated incremental policy shifts of the last decade and to build up the capacity for creative policy formulation, it is nevertheless important now to think radically and envisage the architecture that will best serve Australia over the longer term. Labor’s concept of mission-driven compacts, complemented by a strategic approach to the funding of research, based on rigorous evaluation of performance quality, offers a powerful vehicle for strengthening and diversifying the higher education sector. We have a responsibility within the sector to provide leadership to drive this agenda.

Broad Topics: Education

Sub-topics: Policy & Political Science

Areas: University

Professor Ian Chubb is the Vice-Chancellor and President of the Australian National University. His career includes six years as Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University and senior executive appointments at Monash University and the University of Wollongong. He was Chair of the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee in 2000, and from 2004–2005 was Chair of the Group of Eight Universities. In 2006, Professor Chubb was elected the President of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) for a two-year term. Most recently, as Chair of the Go8 he played a significant part in moderating some of the impact of the 2003 Higher Education Reform Bill.