jeannie rea - nteu - workforce participation: how staff voices are heard

Jeannie Rea, National President, NTEUUniversity Governance and Regulation Forum, Sydney 5-6

September 2016

Elected by staff to governance bodies

Selected by management

Participation in management and governance bodies and committees as part of duties

Through consultation processes -committees, surveys and open meetings

“The national approach to higher education is to “reflect the increasingly corporate nature of modern universities, which are multi-million dollar enterprises, and to encourage universities to undertake commercial activities and engage in collaborative activities with other universities across State borders.”

Source: Cth, 2005, Building Better Foundations for Higher Education in Australia: A Discussion About Re-aligning Commonwealth-State Responsibilities

“This includes at the system level a growing belief in the benefits of the marketplace in higher education governance, leading to a growing reliance on competition in the distribution of public funds for teaching and research.

“At the institutional level the role and position of formally appointed or elected leaders, managers and administrators have been strengthened and professionalised at the cost of the general involvement of the academic staff in institutional governance matters.”

IM Larssen, P Maassen & B Stensaker, 2009, “Four basic dilemmas in university governance”, Jnl HE Management and

Policy, 21/3.

The ‘academics’ in academic governance diminished ◦ Academic Boards & Committees

◦ Faculty Boards and Committees

Most participants’ role now designated by their professional or management position, not as part of academic role

Reasons I have been told

◦ Not the role for staff

◦ Constrained by self-interest

◦ Other members constrained to speak with staff

◦ Not the corporate model

◦ Haven’t liked some staff reps

◦ Do not have expertise or skill sets required

Conflict of interest

Confidentiality

Commercial in Confidence

“Higher education teaching personnel should have the right and opportunity, without discrimination of any kind, according to their abilities, to take part in governing bodies and to criticise the functioning of higher education institutions, including their own, while respecting the right of other sections of the academic community to participate, and they should also have the right to elect the majority of representatives to academic bodies within the higher education institution.”

Principle of university autonomy recognised internationally

Intellectual freedom of staff and students now enshrined in federal legislation as being required in university policy◦ Exercised through participation in university

governance, as well through education and research

Critical to course approval and accreditation

Distinguishes a university

Industrial representation and professional advocacy

What is discussed and decided does matter:◦ From university commercial partnerships◦ To investment in online resources as

response to budget crisis◦ To letting precarious employment keep

increasing as proportion of university jobs◦ Tuition fees ◦ Policy on internationalisation◦ Research priorities◦ Opening and closing sites........

Because university governance matters

Universities do have a particular role in society

Critic and conscience

For the public good

In the public interest

Public expectations and confidence

Accountability – public money

Union’s interest is in purposeful participation by staff (and students) in decision making on education and research through governance bodies with real power

For further discussion:

jrea@nteu.org.au

www.nteu.org.au