In July 2023, the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia announced plans to merge. If the merger goes ahead, the new ‘Adelaide University’ will open in January 2026 and become the largest university in Australia, at least for domestic students. But the lack of transparency, including a refusal to release the business case for the merger, has led to a South Australian parliamentary inquiry.

The merger epitomises the governance problems that have engulfed universities across Australia since Howard-era reforms, including the 2004 National Governance Protocols. These reforms altered the composition and function of the councils entrusted with governing Australia’s public universities, and introduced a requirement that a minority of council members have financial and commercial expertise. Councils were also made responsible for undertaking revenue raising and pursuing commercial activity. This raises fundamental questions about the purpose of Australia’s public universities. These are public interest issues because councils make decisions about public money that is intended for public education.

This paper discusses two measures that would encourage transparency in university governance and ensure a renewed focus on education over profit:

• Requiring university councils to publish the minutes of their meetings.
• Ensuring that the majority of university council members are elected by university staff and students, and that they are drawn from candidates with expertise in education and the public sector.

The most effective way to ensure these reforms are effective is to amend the Acts of state parliaments that create and regulate Australia’s universities. The Commonwealth Government’s current review of higher education — the Australian Universities Accord process — presents another chance for reform. But, to be meaningful, the Accords need to be clear that the purpose of universities is education and research.

This paper also presents new polling conducted by the Australia Institute, which shows that the majority of Australians agree that the minutes of university council meetings should be made public, and that councils should focus primary on improving education for students. A separate Australia Institute poll presented in this paper shows that most South Australians want to see the business case for the proposed merger.