News & Views item - February  2005

 

 

Australia's Oldest and Australia's Best Join Forces With a Stated Aim to Challenge America's Best. (February 23, 2005)

    Gavin Brown, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney and Ian Chubb, Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, during a tour of a Chilean winery last year took the opportunity to talk sort of merger.  In due course "we got our senior executives to put their heads together and start translating a nice pie-in-the-sky idea into a whole series of concrete proposals that could be further developed."

 

What the twelve month gestation brought forth at parturition might be termed the Brown/Chubb Compact. It's not known whether or not the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Brendan Nelson, or Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews, were consulted -- but it seems unlikely.

 

The accord was signed by the two V-Cs on the weekend and came into force immediately. But the full details have not been made public.

 

In general terms, The Australian's Brendan O'Keefe reports that the two universities will "collaborate in research, teaching and recruitment to boost their international presence. ...Professor Chubb said there were some issues to be resolved regarding credit transfer for students switching between the two institutions. 'I would expect that by second semester you will see some things happening and that by the beginning of next academic year, you should see a substantial number of opportunities open up.'"

 

Gavin Brown, before he descended to the depths of Vice-Chancellorhood was in one of his former lives a mathematician which may account for his straightforward logic:

 "It will give us the ability to attract the best staff. One of the problems with attracting people, especially those from overseas, is to provide them with the research base to have a serious team in a seriously equipped lab that allows them to do serious work on the world stage."

 And while O'Keefe sums up the thrust of the compact, "The agreement will spawn new co-operative research programs, as well as joint bids for new centres and resources, and will allow joint graduate coursework degrees and honours degree programs. Joint undergraduate courses will be offered by both institutions and will be co-badged, allowing students to move between different courses with reciprocal credit and guaranteed enrolment." If what Gavin Brown and Ian Chubb say they are "seriously" striving for doesn't come up to top standards the stated aims will be so much moon shine.

 

The joint effort is going to need serious resources, and for a start that will mean they are going to have to find serious funding to invoke a challenging rebuilding process. Just joining two partial cripples doesn't guarantee an Olympic or Paralympic champion.