The ANU’s vice-chancellor, Professor Laurie Nichol, is expected to be questioned at a council meeting today on how legislation passed at the end of the last sitting will affect the university’s autonomy.
The legislation replaces the system whereby the university got its money from Parliament to spend on university purposes as it thought. Instead the Minister will determine the university’s funds out of a pool appropriated for all 35 Australian universities. The Minister will determine that according to the university’s “”educational profile” provided to the Minister.
The ANU Council sits in a standing committee today. It is understood Professor Nichol will be asked whether the new arrangement will permit the Minister to direct what the university teaches and what to research and to force universities for follow social and political priorities of the government.