Calls for South Australian government to delay university merger

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The former vice-chancellor of the University of Adelaide, which is looking to amalgamate with the University of South Australia, says the merge will create a “lumbering dinosaur”.

Transcript

00:00 It's branded as a university for the future, but this former Vice-Chancellor says merging

00:07 the state's two biggest universities would create something far from it.

00:12 It will have created instead a lumbering dinosaur.

00:16 Professor Warren Bebbington used to helm the University of Adelaide and travelled from

00:20 interstate to give evidence to a parliamentary committee scrutinising the half a billion

00:26 dollar merger proposal.

00:28 It will be captive of large classes, it will have the kind of sluggish management response

00:33 to change that you get in huge organisations, low student satisfaction.

00:38 He's calling on the state government to postpone introducing legislation to combine the universities

00:43 of Adelaide and South Australia until after the federal government finalises a new Australian

00:49 universities accord.

00:50 South Australia would be locked into launching in 2026 a giant that by then will be quite

00:57 out of step with the changed university environment in Australia.

01:01 We've always said that there's no reason to rush this legislation through this year.

01:06 The government disagrees.

01:07 Whenever you do bold reforms and bold changes, there are people who are not going to like

01:12 change.

01:13 We think that creating Australia's largest university in an Australian context gives

01:16 us the ability to have an offering that no other Australian state can offer.

01:20 But without opposition or crossbench support, laws to create the new university won't get

01:25 up.

01:26 [END]

01:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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