The submission is presented in two parts, the first dealing with the whole university system in this country and the second with Australian Catholic University. In short, we believe that the public good element of higher education is of such importance that the system cannot be left entirely to private enterprise and market forces, that therefore there is a major role for government in supporting the quality and financing of the system, and that Australian Catholic University as a distinctive contributor to the public good is deserving of a fair share of such government support.
Much of what we would wish to say about the value of higher education to Australia, the issues which may bear on the contribution of Australia's universities to the national welfare, and the organization and financing of higher education will be well said in the submission made by the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC). In particular, that submission deals with specific issues relating to students, staff, infrastructure, inter-sectoral co-operation, competition policy and financing in terms which we endorse and therefore see no need to repeat. We shall, however, touch selectively on some issues which are pursued in detail in the AVCC submission.
The importance of education, and especially higher education, can be established on moral, intellectual, cultural, social and economic grounds. Economists have long been aware of the central role played by education in economic growth and development. The idea can be found in the eighteenth century writings of Adam Smith and, at the turn of the last century, in the work of Alfred Marshall, who wrote:
We may then conclude that the wisdom of expending public and private funds on education is not to be measured by its direct fruits alone. It will be profitable as a mere investment, to give the masses of the people much greater opportunities than they can generally avail themselves of. For by this means many, who would have died unknown, are enabled to get the start needed for bringing out their latent abilities. And the economic value of one great industrial genius is sufficient to cover the expenses of the education of a whole town; for one new idea, such as Bessemer's chief invention, adds as much to England's productive power as the labour of a hundred thousand men. Less direct, but not less in importance, is the aid given to production by medical discoveries such as those of Jenner or Pasteur, which increase our health and working power; and again by scientific work such as that of mathematics and biology, even though many generations may pass away before it bears visible fruit in greater material wellbeing. All that is spent during many years in opening the means of higher education to the masses would be well paid for if it called out one more Newton or Darwin, Shakespeare, or Beethoven.[1]
Belief in the value of higher education is demonstrated by world-wide growth in demand for it. In Australia, as elsewhere, there is not only a high, and in recent times growing, continuation rate from secondary school to higher education (with a corresponding insufficiency of university places for qualified school leavers) but also a swelling demand from older candidates who seek first-time higher education and demand from postgraduate, continuing education and re-education candidates. Recent estimates by an American analyst suggest that, in the USA alone, the conventional mode of higher education would require the opening of a 30,000 student campus every eight days for the next thirteen years to cope with a projected demand of 20 million additional students by 2010.[2] To put it bluntly, the supply capacity of present higher education institutions using conventional forms of teaching cannot possibly keep up with the world's growing demand for higher education. Hence the emergence of industry "universities" (Motorola, Volvo, Data General, AT&T) and the "virtual" university of which there are already operating examples. There is a world-wide investment crisis in higher education.
Many countries match recognition of the value of education by devoting high levels of public investment to it, eg Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Hong Kong and the United States. (President Clinton's Address to the Nation of February 1997 is required reading on the central importance of high public investment in education and on his determination that the USA achieve it.) Yet in Australia the level of government expenditure devoted to education does not compare well with the USA or our Asian neighbours and the will to increase it is not evident; on the contrary, government spending on education is being reduced as part of a balanced budget strategy. We - and many others - would argue for and accept the achievement of budget balance by means of increased tax revenues rather than by reductions in public expenditure on higher education.
Universities have a good claim on public resources. This is because the community at large stands to benefit intellectually, culturally and economically from a highly-educated population. In this sense, higher education is rightly described as a "public good"; and embedded in the "public good" concept are issues of social justice in access to higher education, and need versus merit to the extent that these sometimes diverge. But higher education is not only a public good - higher education also brings benefits individually to those who experience it, benefits which may be either of an investment nature (specific preparation for earning an income) or a consumption nature (eg pleasurable appreciation of renaissance art). In these latter senses, higher education may be described as a "private good". Who then should pay for a commodity which has both public and private benefits? The Australian solution of recent years has been both the general public (through Commonwealth financial grants to the universities which supply higher education) and students at university who incur financial obligations to contribute to the public purse via the Higher Education Contributions Scheme (HECS). So much for the principles which are reasonable and command general social acceptance. However, there are now practical problems.
Although the demand for higher education remains strong and not fully satisfied, it is proving difficult to provide for any increases on present levels of enrolments, quality and access from the public purse. Moreover, new operating costs have been imposed on universities by way of internal and external accountability requirements, often imposed by legislation. Reporting has become more frequent and widespread; statistical information is demanded in more complexity and over a growing range of subjects; and social legislation - relating to such concerns as equal opportunity, occupational health and safety, animal welfare, freedom of information and copyright - has put specific responsibilities, duties and costs on the higher education institutions. New ways and means of raising incomes of universities and containing their costs must be explored.
There is currently much discussion and debate about the reduction in Commonwealth grants to universities. No university looks forward to policies which would force it to reduce student and staff numbers and curtail its programs. At the same time, questions are asked about the adequacy of contributions made to costs by the direct beneficiaries of higher education. Democratic processes will rightly determine the general balance between public and private contributions to the costs of providing higher education. Thus far those processes have resulted in the current 60:40 per cent division of university sector funding between public and private sources (the latter, of course, involving HECS monies). Government contributions to higher education should not fall below 60 per cent of national resources committed to universities and the total of such national resources should increase. We endorse the AVCC recommendation that the level of national resources to be devoted to higher education from all sources should rise from the current 1.65% of Gross Domestic Product to reach 2% of GDP by the year 2010.
Within private sector sources of university funding, more should be sought from employers, because not all the private benefits of higher education accrue to the graduates. The benefits which employers of skilled graduates derive from those skills are not entirely recompensed via graduate salaries. There does seem to be a case for attempting to recoup some of the costs of providing higher education from employers.
Government, of course, has a financing problem with HECS because of the time lag between expenditure on universities and the deferred payment, via the tax system, of the HECS. And as the higher education system grows, this financing gap would become more burdensome. One way of easing the strain and enlarging the pool of funds available for grants to universities might be to raise private sector subscriptions to education bonds, government-guaranteed with attractive coupon rates of interest.
Another problem is the financing of research. In economists' terms, the universities are presently producing a composite good: teaching-and-research. In a free market, the disaggregated demand for each component would be different. Not many students would voluntarily pay much for the research component on which the vitality of higher education depends. This is a tricky issue; inasmuch as research is essential to good teaching, time spent by staff on research is to some extent part of the true cost of teaching and should be covered by the fee for tuition. Nevertheless, the demand for research cannot be expected to be very high, so far as individual buyers are concerned. Research will thus have to be funded by government, and by large endowments or commissions from the private sector. Since the latter would, on the whole, probably be specific to the interests of the donor or buyer, government should be the source of generalized research funding. Otherwise many present subjects of research - notably in the humanities and social sciences - will be starved of financial support.
The discussion of the need for expansion of higher education has so far concentrated upon quantity, in the national aggregate. We must also recognize that there are problems to be tackled in maintaining quality and in the allocation of places among subjects and institutions. Would the market system protect academic standards? It is not entirely fanciful to fear that institutions, in competition for fee-paying enrolments, might seek to attract students by playing on the human inclination towards the easy life and offer courses which are not too demanding. Further, some argue that Australia needs to commit education places to producing far greater numbers of scientifically and technologically skilled graduates even at the expense of enrolment growth in the arts and social science subjects. This is a very complex and difficult issue: science and technology education is the most expensive type to supply and, in recent years, the career rewards in these fields have been low in relation to other occupations such as law, economics and accounting. Students have flocked to the latter courses, while science enrolments have fallen to low levels. In turn, academic careers in science and technology have become unattractive and the stock of university teachers in science and technology subjects sadly depleted. If fashions or market structures change, institutions which have recruited staff and ancillary resources to particular uses would find them redundant and doubtfully redeployable as demand patterns change; lawyers could not easily become biotechnologists. Can the nation leave its future intellectual needs to be determined by the possibly transitory inclinations of school leavers? Just as research is too important to be left entirely to unfettered market forces, so also is teaching.
It seems desirable to retain a co-ordinating role and a substantial system of block funding emanating from the Commonwealth, while at the same time loosening the Commonwealth Government's administrative grip on higher education. The question must be addressed as to what extent governments are willing to release the higher education system. A sceptical view is that government officials really wish to maintain or increase regulatory control of the institutions, while ratcheting down the government funding levels as far as practicable. While there are vocal proponents of a voucher system (including those universities which believe they would benefit), there are good grounds for the view that governments - at State and Commonwealth levels - have overriding considerations related to the economic and social needs of the regions and other sectors of the community, and that these considerations will prevent them from adopting a fully deregulated system for higher education. There is a social vested interest in the retention of a spread of institutions of higher education and research that cater for geographical and sectoral community needs. Put simply, it would be politically unacceptable to allow regional and specialist universities to close because of the inability to compete against large metropolitan universities in a voucher market.
It should also be realised that although there is already a strong level of competition among Australian institutions (reflected in the relative percentages of high ability enrolees to each institution) there is also the prospect of new institutions of higher education. Under conditions of free entry to the industry, new universities (probably private) may be expected, and they could be of Australian or foreign initiative. As it is very expensive to establish and operate institutions of higher education, the financial penalties for failure would be large and would thus act as a deterrent barrier to the establishment of all but those new institutions with high probability of success. However, if there were institutional failures, the costs would fall not only on the promoters but also on the students and graduates of such institutions: the general reputation of Australian higher education would also be damaged. Caveat emptor is thus doubtfully sufficient protection for the individual student and the social interest, and it seems preferable to go some little way along the path of regulation.
On the other hand, the imposition of any legislative/regulatory barrier to entry to any industry confers a property right upon those entrepreneurs who successfully surmount the barrier. Should society allow property rights to accrue to a select number of private universities? If so, on what criteria should the successful be chosen? Higher education is too important a public good to be left entirely ungoverned. The buyers of higher education are entitled to the reassurance that providers are qualified and competent to transmit knowledge at appropriate international standards. The providers may receive a degree of protection in return for the maintenance of standards. These thoughts lead to the view that the establishment of universities (whether public or private institutions) should remain a matter of government consent.
The higher education system in Australia is in competition with well-established universities from North America and Europe in the lucrative Asian region. Australia has been well-served in recent years by its higher education system as an export earner. Overseas clients tend to view Australian universities as a whole. There are advantages in the current market perceptions of a uniformly high quality of the courses offered by Australian universities. It is doubtful whether continuing reductions in government funding to these institutions will enhance their marketing power in Asia.
The "international price" in education (ie acceptable qualifications) is determined by practice and repute. In Australian universities, curricula are determined by academic staff who are recruited in international competition and who hold first and higher degrees from all over the world. These staff generally undertake research and publish their findings in journals or books which are subject to objective refereeing processes and which circulate throughout the world of scholarship. Australian academics frequently work for periods in overseas universities and colleges; foreign academics visit Australian universities for periods of teaching and research; Australian and overseas academics meet frequently at international academic conferences. Finally, many university departments in Australia call on external examiners and reviewers to validate honours and higher degrees and courses. In these various and concurrent ways, Australia is part of an international network of research, scholarship and teaching. Our institutions of higher education have always been proud of their membership of this network and have gladly accepted its discipline. Australian universities have willingly taught to international standards, each one knowing only too well that any departure from standards would soon be apparent not only beyond Australia but also within it, with consequent loss of students and reputation.
Something should be said here about the central and inter-related areas of globalization (or internationalization) and information technology, which the Committee rightly sees as "ultimately so pervasive in their likely impact on Australian higher education".
We have already drawn attention to the growing world-wide gap between expected demand for higher education and the supply capacity of present universities using traditional technology and modes of learning. Simultaneously, however, international co-operation in higher education is at unprecedented and increasing levels - joint ventures in teaching and research, credit transfer, articulation and "lifelong learning" all transcend national boundaries and often call on modern communications systems to impart knowledge and administer awards. There is no realistic alternative to being part of these developments and embracing them with enthusiasm.
While universities must not compromise on standards and should maintain their institutional distinctiveness, they must also come to terms with the reality that the boundary with the vocational education and training (VET) sector is being increasingly blurred. This is a world-wide phenomenon, of which the manifestations in Australia include recognition of prior learning, educational precincts, and the offering of some professional and para-professional education programs by both sectors; also globalization is encouraging strategic alliances between higher education and VET institutions off-shore, especially in business and related studies. Careful co-operation and resource-sharing between universities and the VET sector may provide scope for enhancing student opportunities, generating income and reducing costs.
Australian Catholic University is a public institution with a Catholic identity. The University is a company limited by guarantee incorporated by members of the Roman Catholic Church, is formally recognized by State and Commonwealth governments and is a member of Australia's Unified National System of Higher Education. The University receives public recognition and enjoys public financial support and academic autonomy on the same basis as all other members of the Unified National System.
Australian Catholic University is a unique institution in being the first publicly-funded Catholic university in the nation and the first university that physically transcends state boundaries. Australian Catholic University operates in accordance with its Memorandum and Articles of Association, its membership of the Unified National System of Higher Education, government policy and community aspirations, and within the limitations of available resources. The governing authority of the University is its Senate.
The University is open to all and is committed to teaching, research and scholarship in accordance with Catholic principles and traditions. The University is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the International Federation of Catholic Universities. The Vice-Chancellor is a member of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee.
Australian Catholic University has in total nearly 10,000 students of whom about 900 are postgraduate students. There are several hundred fee-paying, overseas students and off-shore programs are conducted in Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand. The University also enrols students within Australia into various non-award courses. The University employs some 550 academic and 450 general staff.
The University currently operates on eight campuses located in Brisbane, Sydney (3), Canberra, Melbourne (2) and Ballarat and is directed from the Vice-Chancellery located in North Sydney. However, in 1998 the University will consolidate its Sydney activities into two campuses, and it is planning to bring all its Melbourne operations on to one campus.
The Academic Board is the principal academic body, responsible to the Senate and with the right to advise Senate on all matters relating to teaching, scholarship and research. There are three university-wide faculties, namely, Education, Health Sciences, and Arts and Sciences; within the last there is a Sub-Faculty of Theology. Each of the University-wide faculties which report to the Academic Board has a Faculty Board, presided over by the Dean, which conducts the ordinary business of the faculty.
The chief executive officer of the University is the Vice-Chancellor. There are three Pro-Vice-Chancellors (located in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney) with delegated responsibility for assigned areas of University policy. There are Rectors, of professorial status, at Ballarat and Canberra. The Vice-Chancellor is also assisted by the Deans of the three faculties, the Dean of Students and eight Directors with national portfolios who are distributed around the geographical span of the institution. The academic activities, management and administration of the University are integrated into a single organisation supported by modern communications technology and services.
Australian Catholic University represents a significant development in the history of Catholic education and higher education in Australia. The University seeks to embody the Catholic conviction that reason and faith are complementary ways of knowing and that knowledge and skills reach their perfection when lived out in justice and love. These convictions enliven the staff and students and those in the wider community who support and foster the University. Their shared goal is the evolution of a distinguished Catholic university.
The essential marks of a university are freedom, autonomy, openness and disinterested enquiry. These are attributes of approach and habit of mind, rather than matters of content, activity or organization. Thus various universities can accommodate differences in curricula, different balances between teaching and research, and differences in structure, yet each be true to the norm. A university is a self-governing community of masters and scholars, characterised by a universal perspective rather than necessarily by a wide curriculum of subjects. All universities exist within a philosophical and values environment. A Catholic university seeks to contribute to society by an endless conversation between academic scholarship and Catholic faith and values.
Australian Catholic University shares with all universities commitment to teaching, research and service to the local, national and international communities. As a Catholic university, this commitment is expressed within an environment in which academic and spiritual values are intrinsically related. Underlying all the University's endeavours is its commitment to fostering a culture of inquiry in which staff and students may reflect critically on the content, role and significance of academic studies in the context of Christian ideas and practice. The University recognizes its capacity to help students to form their values and ideals, and acknowledges its responsibility not only to provide a quality education but also to inculcate in its graduates a spirit of service.
Australian Catholic University has a rigorous and critical approach to scholarship, characterised by intellectual honesty, academic excellence and freedom of investigation. The University is committed to exploring a wide range of disciplines, fostering interdisciplinary studies and promoting co-operation with other universities, theological institutes and church and service organizations. The University fosters research in general and, in particular, seeks to address serious contemporary issues. It is advantageously placed to contribute scholarship in such areas as theology, scripture, philosophy, ethics, social justice, education, health care, marriage and family studies, the history of Australia and Asia, and stewardship of resources and the environment. The University also explores the ethical, moral and religious dimensions of scientific and technological developments, and of social and cultural change. The maintenance of strong research capability is essential if the University is to hold a place of academic leadership in these fields.
The ethical and moral context of university teaching and research was once the hallmark of all universities but it seems to have weakened in many. There is a contemporary need for an ethical approach in many aspects of business, law, medicine, science and education. It is all too easy for technique to become central, rather than the humanity which technique should serve. It is dangerous when the intellectual and technical aspects of knowledge become detached and separated from human, ethical considerations. The two thousand year Catholic intellectual tradition has much to offer in providing the necessary moral, social and justice dimensions.
The ideal has been expressed well by Vivian Green, an Anglican clergyman and sometime Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford:
The university cannot be simply concerned with the accumulation of knowledge; it must pursue the cultivation of truth, goodness and beauty, of social quality and freedom. It must see as its primary task the formation, cultivation and transmission of a sense of value. It is, or ought to be, as much a school of morals as a community of scholars and teachers.[3]
Australian Catholic University seeks to carry out its teaching and research with a particular concern for ethical and moral implications: these elements are incorporated into every degree program. Also integral to its ethos are staff who (irrespective of personal religious identification) espouse the Catholic ideals of the University and who articulate its vision and inspire its students.
In a Catholic university, "theology plays a particularly important role in the search for a synthesis of knowledge as well as in the dialogue between faith and reason. It serves all other disciplines in their search for meaning... In turn, interaction with these other disciplines and their discoveries enriches theology".[4] Australian Catholic University is committed to the distinctive philosophy and practices of Catholic higher education in an Australian setting. It seeks to apply the ideals of Catholic universities to contemporary society, both in Australia and internationally. This is realised in diverse ways by the academic achievements, leadership and service of its staff and graduates. The University commits itself to serving disadvantaged members of the Australian community and strongly supports national initiatives for the socially disadvantaged which endeavour to improve their access to and participation in higher education.
An essential element of the University's vision of higher education is the integrated nature of its academic and professional courses, which allows students opportunities for a personal synthesis of knowledge, skills and Christian values. This broad spiritual, ethical, cultural and social education prepares graduates to become men and women who are not only capable of rational and critical judgement but who are also conscious of the dignity of the human person.
A special role of Australian Catholic University is the formation of responsible leaders. Besides their academic achievements and skills, the marks of these future leaders should be moral sensitivity, confidence in commitment and ability to dialogue. These characteristics are fostered by students' participation in their courses and extra-curricular activities and by their interaction with members of faculty. Thus, students are stimulated to grow in mind, character and faith; and graduates are enabled to serve the community as qualified practitioners in their chosen fields.
Much emphasis is these days placed on the need for universities to seek partnerships with suitable organizations in industry, commerce or government, in order to enhance curricula, provide vocational focus and employment opportunities for students, conduct research of joint interest and make more effective use of scarce resources. This university is in effective partnership with the Catholic Church - a big corporation by any definition - whose many arms contribute significantly and substantially to the education, health care and social welfare of Australians. Indeed, it is our view that the value of the public good element in our nurse education, especially, and teacher education is above the average value of that in university degrees in general. In these partnership respects the University can claim considerable success. The employability of our students - based as it is on partnerships with school and hospital employers - is extraordinarily high, and graduates' impressions of their courses are very favourable. In harmony with these features, our teacher and nurse education students enter the University by strong choice.
Consistent with the mission of Australian Catholic University special attention is given to student needs; student services include ministry teams with a mandate to offer opportunities to reflect on and synthesise learning, and develop spiritual and ethical awareness. Opportunities are provided for students to contribute to the community through voluntary social outreach programs available on each campus.
Knowledge knows no boundaries and internationalism is inherent in the word "university". Ideas and interests must resonate abroad and Australian academics should rightly aspire to recognition by the international college of scholars. This philosophical commitment to the international nature of knowledge is nowadays matched by powerful economic and social forces which are driven largely by developments in information and communications technology. Consumption, production and employment no longer respect national boundaries but are becoming increasingly and rapidly "globalized"; leisure and cultural pursuits are similarly spread universally. These things call for multi-lingual skills and multi-cultural understanding which must grow from human resource development in academic staff and students. Christian principles provide a moral basis on which individual talents can be developed. Breadth of vision is essential lest apparently optimal local decisions turn out to be globally deficient. These challenges are real, large and urgent, but they should not unduly daunt a Catholic university because the Catholic church has always sought to be a global church; that approach should underpin the vision and attitudes of a Catholic institution of learning. Accordingly, the University is active in regional and world-wide organizations of Catholic and other universities, and is developing exchange, study abroad and research agreements with many of them; the University welcomes foreign students, conducts courses abroad and provides overseas development assistance.
The University's main academic areas are: Business, Education, Environmental Science, Ethics, Humanities, Human Movement, Information Systems, Music, Nursing, Religion Studies, Teaching, Theology, Social Sciences and Social Work.
The formation of the Faculties of Education and Health Sciences reflect the fact that the University takes very seriously its charge to prepare teachers for Catholic and other schools and professional nurses for Catholic and other hospitals. It believes this is best done in the milieu of a Christian university. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences not only offers specific first degree and higher degree programs in the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences, but also provides courses in these basic disciplines for students enrolled in the Faculties of Education and Health Sciences.
In addition to the faculties, there is an Institute of Advanced Research which, like a faculty, spans the whole University. Appointments to the Institute have been made in the fields of Philosophy, History and Patristics, to date. There are also research centres for Ethics in Health Care (in association with St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney), Mathematics Education, and Early Christian Studies; and the University has an association with the Caroline Chisholm Centre for Health Ethics in Melbourne, the Director of which is an Adjunct Professor of the University.
In the foreseeable future the University will remain an institution devoted to liberal studies and professional education in fields currently encompassed by the present faculties of Arts and Sciences, Education and Health Sciences. The pursuit of excellence in teacher education and nurse education will be maintained, along with the steady development of liberal studies in basic sciences, humanities, social sciences and theology (which all complement and strengthen teacher education and nurse education). Thus the profile of the University will widen in directions which extend naturally from the inherited activities with which the University began and which are in keeping with our mission.
To strengthen the intellectual resources of the University, we intend to establish Chairs in several of the areas mentioned as fast as we can afford to do so, in order to have professorial leadership in teaching and research. Already, there are or have been Chairs in Philosophy, Theology, History, Educational Leadership, Accounting, Clinical Nursing and Children's Sport and Exercise Science, in addition to the professorial standing of the Deans and other University leaders which cover Education, Nursing, Sociology, Social Science, English, Chemistry and Economics.
The University will continue to promote interaction within and among its faculties so as to foster understanding of the interplay between spiritual, academic and cultural development which has characterised the common history of Church and society, which is needed in the present, and which will underpin in the words of the University's Mission Statement "an adequate understanding of human experience in all its manifestations" in the future.
Ministry and Student Welfare
A Dean of Students and Director of Ministry has overall leadership and direction of a
team of campus-based staff dedicated to Ministry, Liturgy, counselling, study skills and
student welfare generally. Of course, staff are also strongly encouraged to be part of the
spiritual and liturgical life of the University.
University Foundation
The Foundation raises public awareness of and financial support for the University. From
its inception in 1993 the Foundation has raised $4.75 million in donations and pledges,
involving full provision for Professorial Chairs of Educational Leadership, Clinical
Nursing and Children's Sport and Exercise Sciences.
Office of International Education
The Office is responsible for the development and implementation of strategies for the
provision of educational services for overseas clients, the recruitment of overseas
students to our Australian campuses, the identification of opportunities for staff and
student exchanges internationally, and collaboration with suitable overseas universities
and related institutions.
Division of Continuing Education
The Division, known as ACUCOM, embraces non-award teaching activities for fees, and
includes units which provide community education, communication studies and English
language intensive courses for overseas students.
Information and Communication Services
A Director is responsible for the operations, further development and enhancement of
telephone, audiovisual, data processing, data storage and data transmission facilities
which have been assisted by government establishment grants of $1.5 million.
As will be apparent by now, Australian Catholic University is a complex organization, with unique costs imposed by the trans-State distribution of its eight campuses. Inherent in the history, nature and vision of the University is the maintenance of a multi-campus structure to serve its several communities. However, the University recognizes that - consistent with this objective - fewer campuses would be less costly, especially in the present circumstances where there is no funding provision for the geographically distributed form of the University. The University recognizes, too, that its various campuses are individually too small for academic and economic viability - the academic power and strengths of the institution flow from the organizational unity of its geographically separated parts.
In seeking to reconcile these considerations, the University is planning to consolidate its activities in Melbourne on one campus and in Sydney on two; even so, in order to serve all its regions, there will remain substantial costs of operating the University which are not recognized in funding criteria based on student load and patterns of activity, without regard for geographic spread.
The University provides higher education in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, and in the Australian Capital Territory; this is recognized and presumably valued by the respective governments but none of them seem to "look after" this University in the way they do for the universities created by local legislation.
It is to the Commonwealth that Australian Catholic University must look for care and nourishment. The University would appreciate consideration of the possibility of specific Commonwealth assistance to provide better for the well-being and development of the trans-State, multi-campus operations of this distinctive Australian university.
[1]
Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, Macmillan, London, 1947, p216.[2] MG Dolence, "Transformative Forces and the Challenge to Independent Higher Education", presentation to National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Washington DC, 1997.
[3] VHH Green, The Universities, Penguin: Harmondsworth, 1969, pp321-2.
[4] Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1990, no 19.