Former University of Adelaide vice-chancellor Warren Bebbington has spoken out against the institution’s planned merger with the University of South Australia, saying it would become a “lumbering dinosaur” unable to respond effectively to new opportunities.
Professor Bebbington, who led the University of Adelaide from 2012 to 2017, told an SA parliamentary committee inquiring into the merger that it should not go ahead before the outcome of the federal Universities Accord review is known.
“Rushing into a merger ahead of understanding the details of what will be the most significant reform of our university system since the Dawkins mergers in 1990 would be very premature,” he said.
Professor Bebbington pointed out that the Accord review had foreshadowed the emergence of new smaller universities tailored to specific purposes.
A merger, which would create on of Australia’s largest universities, “would leave the state with a one-size-fits-all dinosaur, dependent on an outdated international student model cross-subsidising research from their fees, a practice likely to be restricted or stopped in future,” he said.
Professor Bebbington said the review could lead to universities that just trained the professions, some that were residential, and some that focused on teaching and did no research. New universities could emerge in underserved areas from what are currently study centres. A large, merged university would be “sluggish” and slow to respond to opportunities, he said.
Professor Bebbington said university mergers worked best in regions where there had been massive population growth and large numbers of school leavers being shut out of university.
“That is not the situation in South Australia, where the school leaver population has been fairly steady for years, and there is little unmet demand. A merger is thus the solution for a problem SA simply does not have,” he said.
The merger, which is strongly backed by SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, can proceed only if the state government passes legislation to set up the new university. It must win the support of either the Liberal opposition or crossbenchers in the upper house to ensure passage.
Professor Bebbington told the committee that the university merger legislation should be postponed for at least a year until it becomes clear what reforms will emerge from the Universities Accord process.