Over the past four months there have been significant changes to Victorian law regarding the governance of public universities.
Reports first emerged in October 2012 that the Baillieu government was to propose a bill which would see no mandatory student or staff representation on university councils.
According to the Monash University website, the University Council at Monash is “responsible for the overall superintendence of the University with specific accountability…for the University’s fulfillment of its role in the Australian community”. In simple terms the Council is the highest decision making body at the University.
Traditionally councils include a number of elected student and staff representatives. Over the years, these elected representatives have provided genuine input from the students and staff who make up the university. However, under the proposal, councils such as the University Council at Monash, would instead be able to decide whether to ‘appoint’ students and staff as members.
There was opposition from some universities against these changes, notably from the Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Elizabeth Alexander. However, management at Monash didn’t voice any concerns, thus we can only surmise they support a reduction or removal of elected staff and student representation.
Previously, the Monash University Act gave power to Council to appoint members, and, significantly, required elected staff and student members. However, since the state government’s change in legislation, any mention of “election” is now substituted for by “appointment”, or indeed, removed altogether. Furthermore, there is now a requirement for government appointed members to be equal to or greater than the number of Council appointed members. Therefore it should be noted that the autonomy of the university from government is also under attack.
Formerly the University Council at Monash included two elected students and three elected staff. A global email by the Chancellor Alan Finkel on February 4, announced that in future there will be one student member and one staff member appointed to a 15-member University Council. However, details of how appointments will be determined are yet to “be ironed out”.We would expect that the student representatives elected last year would be ‘appointed’ by Council, but given the trend of developments so far, a less satisfactory arrangement would not be surprising. This is especially true since all appointees must now have appropriate “knowledge, skills and experience required for effective working of Council”. This is a very broad and vague requirement and thus could easily be used to deny the appointment of elected student and staff representatives.
The Monash response to the new legislation is out of line with that of other Victorian universities. At Deakin University, in December council decided to appoint democratically elected student and staff representatives. At University of Melbourne, there will continue to be three staff representatives and two student representatives on council. While these two universities have preserved some level of democracy, what Alan Finkel describes as the “community-focused’” approach has already seen a reduced student and staff ratio on the Council. Council at Monash, moreover, is being painstakingly slow in coming to a decision on how student and staff appointments will work when compared with the councils at Deakin and Melbourne. What needs to be emphasised at this point is that the new legislation in no way prevents university councils from appointing the students and staff that have been democratically elected by their peers; the actions of the Councils at Deakin and Melbourne should demonstrate this definitively.
While we can be happy that student and staff membership of Monash University Council has not been removed altogether, the nature of this membership is still to be determined. Other universities, despite the opportunity presented to them to make changes, have recognized that democratically elected representatives are a valuable way in which management can engage with students and staff.
The next decision to be made by Monash management is whether to respect the democratic election process by guaranteeing the appointment of the elected student and staff representatives, or to set an appointment process which allows the Council to handpick ‘safe’ students and staff. Concerned students and staff should send an email with any queries to Alan Finkel (alan.finkel@monash.edu) and keep an eye on the Facebook Monash Uni Watch page.
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