Union says CQU Council must act on the Audit Report
3 May 2006
NTEU believes that a recent report on Central Queensland University needs urgent action from the Council of the University. The Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) released its Audit Report on CQU in mid-April. The Quality Agency is the independent body charged with assessing the academic quality and governance of Australian Universities.
Dr Howard Guille, Queensland Secretary of the NTEU says that the Audit of CQU is one of most disturbing he has read. The audit states that “a number of academic standards leave room for improvement” and questions whether or not CQU is meeting the National Protocols set for Australian universities.
AUQA links these academic issues to what it believes is insufficient governance by the University over the joint company which operates the CQU campuses in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. This company is jointly owned by the university and a private partner and around half of all CQU students are at these campuses.
Dr Guille says that the union fully supports the AUQA recommendation that CQU Council needs to improve its control over all parts of the university. However, we are very distributed at strong rumours that CQU Council might move to alter the corporate structures so that it can ‘float-off’ the private arm, now or in the future. This would reduce, not increase, the control the university could exert and be contrary to the Audit recommendation.
The union is calling on the CQU Council, which will meet in early May, to establish an open and public dialogue with staff and the community about how it will implement the Audit Report and remedy the serious deficiencies which have been identified. The Union also expects that the State Government, which has regulatory control over CQU, to monitor developments.
For further comments:
Howard Guille 3846-2355 or 0419-673-092