Outgoing ANU boss predicts greater role for private colleges
Private, for-profit colleges will increasingly take on the task of educating new generations of professionals as research-intensive universities struggle under the burden of unsustainable cost structures and teaching models, says Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt.
“Everyone is thinking our university system, as is, is going to deliver the future. It isn’t. We are going to see profound change whether we like it or not,” Professor Schmidt told the 2023 AFR Higher Education Awards dinner in Melbourne last week, where he was presented with a lifetime achievement award.
Professor Schmidt, on his moon ball bean bag in his office, was the person behind Christopher Pyne’s “I’m the fixer” moment. Rohan Thomson
Professor Schmidt said Australia had not done any modelling on the proportion of students who needed a research-intensive undergraduate degree and that other models were cheaper, more efficient, shorter and better suited to the needs of industry.
“There is a mismatch between the teaching needs of the country and its research reality,” said Professor Schmidt, who is vice chancellor of Australian National University.
In Australia, to be called a university, teaching institutions must conduct research in at least three disciplines. The underpinning assumption was that research informs the teaching that students get but, for a large part, this was not the reality – nor should it be, he said.
“What exactly is the value proposition to future students if we continue on this path?” Professor Schmidt said.
“We have high-cost structures that support research and academic freedom, and we are phasing out campus student experience in courses increasingly taught by non-researchers in their field.
“What in this model is attractive to students compared to what a high-quality for-profit company might provide?
“A lot of the new capacity for education will be research-free, and private providers could be very important in delivering this new capacity.”
Professor Schmidt said Australia was over-producing PhDs compared to what the research system could absorb, leading to casualisation and precarious career prospects.
“Whereas a bachelor’s degree increases your lifetime income in Australia by about $500,000, a PhD on average subtracts about half of that – $250,000.”
Pyne the ‘fixer’
Professor Schmidt told the dinner that he was, in fact, the person behind then-education minister Christopher Pyne’s bizarre appearance on morning television in 2015 when he proclaimed: “I’m the fixer” and “I fixed it.”
The tale behind that memorable appearance is complicated but involves then-senator Nick Xenophon, who asked Professor Schmidt to speak to Liberal-turned-independent senator Cory Bernardi about Mr Pyne’s threats to block funding for research infrastructure if he did not get his attempts to deregulate university fees moved forward.
Mr Xenophon’s plan was that after speaking to Senator Bernardi, Professor Schmidt would do a few radio interviews in Adelaide and that would persuade Senator Bernardi he was doing the right and virtuous thing in crossing the floor over the research infrastructure.
On his return flight to Canberra from Adelaide, Professor Schmidt found himself upgraded and seated beside Mr Pyne.
“He told me it was up to me to quit opposing deregulation and to get the crossbench to pass it,” Professor Schmidt said. “I told him I was not going to do this, and I warned him that I was going to be less pleasant in my efforts to get the NCRIS (research infrastructure funding) passed.
“Christopher laughed and said: ‘Give me your best shot’.”
Senator Bernardi did indeed cross the floor. The NCRIS legislation was waved through. Mr Pyne ultimately failed in his attempts to deregulate university fees.
Professor Schmidt told the dinner that being the vice chancellor of ANU was by far the “hardest thing I have ever done”.
“It has provided me with immense personal satisfaction, in amongst bouts of extreme stress and grief.”
At the end of the year, Professor Schmidt will leave the role and return to his two great loves: researching cosmology and teaching.
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