KEY POINTS
- The Australian Government will introduce mission-based compacts with universities to provide a framework for jointly achieving the Government’s reform objectives. It will work with each university to develop a compact that defines the university’s particular mission and describes how it will fulfil that mission and meet the Australian Government’s policy goals.
- Mission-based compacts aim to promote excellence and build capacity and international competitiveness in our university sector. They will enhance institutional autonomy, while encouraging greater collaboration and sectoral diversity and encourage increased participation in higher education by under-represented groups. They will help universities achieve the highest standard of research and research training by enabling all researchers to work in first-class conditions and in first-class company.
- Compacts will facilitate the distribution of performance-based funds and the alignment of institutional activity with national priorities. Rather than micromanaging universities or tying them up in red tape, the Australian Government will work in partnership with the sector, defining clear and consistent targets for improvement and reform that will trigger reward payments. Compacts will be compatible with existing formula-based grant processes. They will give individual universities the chance to capitalise on their strengths and articulate the unique role they play in the higher education system, the innovation system, and their local regions and communities.
- Compacts will be in two parts, one covering teaching and learning and the other covering research. The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research will be responsible for the research program elements and the Minister for Education will be responsible for the teaching and learning program elements. The Commonwealth will adopt a single, integrated process to ensure that each compact reflects a whole-of-university mission and a coordinated response to the Government’s reform agenda.
FACTS AND FIGURES
No decision has been made by the Australian Government about the future funding arrangements for compacts, or for any specific component of the mission-based compacts.