No mention of UQ Senate signing up to the government’s code-of-conduct in silence and denial of the genocide in Palestine or divesting from weapons manufacturers Boeing and Ferra Engineering??. UQ Senate is still not divesting from weapons manufacturers, Boeing and Ferra Engineering. Why hasn’t UQ divested itself from the University of Tel Aviv? Why is it a ‘diamond sponsor’ of the ICCB conference at the Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre? A conference that is green washing ecocide in Palestine and the erasure of Aboriginal and Palestinian land rights?
We post this newsletter below from graduate representative, Lee Duffield, on the UQ Senate.
– Ian Curr, Editor, 17 June 2025
–oOo–
NEWSLETTER #4 for 2025, from Lee Duffield, Member of UQ Senate elected by graduates of the university, this reviews:
pressure on the university sector from several investigations aimed at change;
burgeoning use of AI, and where it is taking us;
the push by America’s Trump administration against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and where that may take us in regard to funding of research;
the beginning of a process to find the next UQ Chancellor;
a big step in redevelopment of the controversial Union precinct;
UQ finances, from the Annual Report;
the university’s continuing dependence on International Students;
and important work being done to preserve Indigenous languages.
CHANGING THE UNIVERSITY SECTOR
Keeping up with the times – especially economic times, and technology times – is probably the driver for much great work going on across many sectors, to work out the best future plans for universities. There is pressure from several quarters; universities are being asked to respond; many in the system don’t like it, though generally there is interest in change.
Most of the impetus is summed up in the federal government’s Australian Universities Accord, which amongst many other proposals wants more access to students from all walks of life, for their benefit and for development of a new highly-skilled economy. The Accord proclaims, so far, full funding of research, not dependent on co-funding by the universities, fitting it to research problems brought up by governments, business and industry. The Accord is summarised in Newsletter 2025 #2 in this series, published on 12.2.25, see the Lee Duffield – Higher Ed page in Facebook.
Current inquiries aimed at change:
Consultation by the Expert Council on University Governance. This body was set up to assist the Education Minister with implementation of the set of proposals making up the Accord. It ran an open process early in the year on the way to drafting principles and recommendations. Universities have begun arguing that governance to date is up to standard, and sustains performance– making for positive achievements already on record in teaching and research.
The Australian government’s “strategic examination of research and development” [LD1] is aiming to “strengthen alignment with national policies and improve outcomes”, with the idea of an expansion, securing funding from government, industry and the universities.
Proposed reforms to the research mainstay, the Australian Research Council National Competitive Grants. Universities including UQ are pressing to retain strong peer-review processes and an explicit scheme for fundamental research.
The Australian Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee’s Inquiry into Quality of University Governance, has been examining whether the regulatory body TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) has adequate powers to identify corporate governance issues. It has made an interim report, set to finalise in August. LINK
Another Parliamentary inquiry initiated by Senator Jacqui Lambie has had as its main interest the level of Vice Chancellors’ salaries, as a yardstick on corporatisation – universities following trends in business
In a form of self-regulatory action the national University Chancellors’ Council has formulated a revised code of governing principles and practice for Australia’s universities . The content does not contest broadly agreed policies sustained by governments, basing itself on ten priority areas identified by Australian Education Ministers last year, on best practice for governing bodies, the Senates chaired by Chancellors, (to include representation of social diversity and First Nations, students and staff, and procedural standards: transparency with appointments, professional development of board members, controls on remuneration). It may be a gesture towards having a locus for rules-making for the sector separate from government and public policy. It has been accepted by the universities generally, including UQ in April, with compliance to be reported on annually and published in the university’s Annual Report
(This section on changes in the tertiary sector in part draws on a report by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Debby Terry, last month, which also detailed submissions by UQ to the various inquiries).
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AI is being investigated and applied at two levels in the university: experimentation with the commercially available software, and research in several academic Faculties and Centres. The Senate in April heard reports on two planned exercises. A chatbot project for the library found 48% of inquiries being handled by AI, helping out where a quarter of inquiries would come in outside office hours. It was seen as demonstrating potential to “free up a lot of time to do other things”, against, also, concerns about job security. A Microsoft Copilot “full suite” was rolled out to a test group of 20-30 people. Its main strength in the exercise was found to be for summarising documents, for example managing floods of emails. It was seen as not removing “unpleasant tasks”; one third of participants dropped out. Projects of this kind are showing major cost benefits and scope for relieving heavy congestion in areas like student assessment, see below.
In my own observations much work is being done in a wide range of academic disciplines, involving engineering and IT, biological and other sciences, psychology and education – to identify a few. In all of the above cases the message is that at the present early stage, UQ is in a leading position in the global effort, or “we are not behind”. The university has an AI Working Group developing an AI Framework, to enable a “balanced, risk-based approach to ethical use, academic integrity, and academic and professional productivity.” Implementation will aim at integration of the AI Framework throughout the university.
One zone where AI is being looked at hard is student assessment, both to block cheating and ensure the learners have learned, and also to get benefits from the ability of artificial systems to handle prodigious volumes of processing. At this time, the assessment system is in the grip of a compensatory culture with heavy incidence of extension time and supplementary papers. Representing the blow-out, there were 24000 examination sittings in early 2025 up from 15000 in a year. Consultation with students has indicated trust in the development and use of AI systems that would tax critical thinking and reasoning. Would that back up authentic and unique human testing or end up obviating it?
US RESEARCH FUNDING
Some consternation is being generated by intimations that the Trump administration may demand a review of universities’ DEI policies (Diversity Equity Inclusion) as a condition of approving research grants from America; a major contributor to the Australian research economy, $386-million annually. The demand is being imposed on elementary schools in the United States, on threat of withdrawing federal funds. Would they want a blanket withdrawal of DEI policies or only banning them from protocols attached to particular research projects? Working up a proactive response might turn out to be unnecessary, so the option is, for now, to see how it goes. Naturally Senate members have been asking, and at time of writing no demands on DEI have come to UQ. A university issues management team is monitoring and liaising with other bodies notably the main research universities, the Group of Eight.
NEW CHANCELLOR FOR UQ
The Chancellor, Mr Peter Varghese AO, is completing his term in mid-2026. The Senate on 29 April discussed the procedure for appointing a successor and approved the formation of a selection committee drawn from the Senate membership. The Chancellor chairs and speaks for the governing Senate, thereby carrying considerable responsibility for assuring a high standard of governance. Australian university Chancellors have been conferring increasingly at national level on policy and governance issues, exerting influence on the system, for example with the formulation of the Code of Conduct mentioned above.
BUILDING WORK – REDEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION COMPLEX
After extensive consultation among management and architects, the University of Queensland Union, and other stakeholders like businesses operating in the area, a budget has been approved for the first stage of the project, $55.148-million. Information has gone out to students and staff on impacts of the work, to involve initially demolition of one building, extensive restoration work in other buildings, and temporary movement of offices and shops to different parts of the campus. The future of the complex, an area set aside for student management and facilities, built around the “forum” area, came under debate in 2019 after plans were announced for a general demolition and massive rebuilding. The scheme was withdrawn in favour of a plan to rebuild on lines consistent with the long-term functions and identity of the precinct of buildings.
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2024
The UQ Annual Report has been published, showing continued recovery from the financial impacts of COVID, citing for example, an operating result in the budget of $314-million, against $126-million in 2023. The outlook on budgets would apply to several institutions across the country, demanding careful management: uncertainty about sources and volume of revenue, high costs limiting capital development despite growing “customer” numbers and demand, and need to maintain cash reserves intact.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Information from the Annual Report and several other sources indicates that high dependency on International Students is set to continue, as a source of revenue, with the international component of tuition fees already over half and set to grow. (Leaving out the major source, Commonwealth grants, but counting domestic fee-paying, and contributions through the HECS or HELP schemes, as fee-paying, the International Students’ contribution gets to over 70%). Recruitment this year is going over to more undergraduate students, to “balance” against postgraduate. Some points about “international”: The impact of overseas postgraduate students is highly recognisable in research and the present-day professions in Australia, including, at UQ, significant numbers of academic staff who initially came to Brisbane to study; tension exists over pressure from government and in the political sector to constrain International Student numbers, where all universities now have their “caps” , (UQ in 2025 remaining within its “quota”); progress is made and major resources given to meeting needs of students from overseas, for example with accommodation, (foundation work is proceeding this month on building of another on-campus residency, where International Students will be prominent); at a cultural level, considering the weight of numbers, all have the job of adjusting to life in a multicultural university community — a more “universal” university.
INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES REVITALISATION PROGRAM
Preserving approximately 130 Australian Indigenous languages, and associated dialects, still spoken (from an original estimated 250), is an important work, with the School of Languages and Cultures contributing through a new program. In April a cohort of 12 students for the Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Languages did an intensive course with the assistance of family members and language champions. Such programs can be strategic where it is estimated that despite a lot of “catching up” on preservation, some 90% of languages are considered endangered.