Staff at the Canberra Institute of Technology and the University of Canberra are bracing for job losses pending the recommendations of the Bradley Review into a potential merger.
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And so concerned about its future is the CIT that it is believed to have written to the ACT Government in a pre-emptive warning against the dangers of a full-scale merger before the Bradley recommendations even go out for consultation. The ACT Government will today issue the findings of Professor Denise Bradley, the architect of Australias new deregulated higher education sector, into how UC and CIT can forge closer links.
According to extracts of her report, published in Saturdays Canberra Times, Professor Bradley believes neither institution is strong enough to survive in its current form and she is expected to recommend a full-scale merger.
Neither UC Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker nor CIT chief executive Adrian Marron would comment last night, but anxiety around such a major reform to the ACTs tertiary and training landscape is at a peak, with both the Australian Education Union and National Tertiary Education Union foreshadowing staff cuts as a result.
AEU ACT branch secretary Penny Gilmour said the most pressing issue facing the ACT Government if it chose to adopt the merger recommendation would be to manage perceptions that one institution was being subsumed by another.
She said it was perplexing that Professor Bradley would question the future survival of the CIT when it ranked 15th out of 59 in Australia in terms of enrolment size and critical mass. While Ms Gilmour said the AEU and NTEU had a good working relationship and shared similar concerns about staff outcomes in the merger, there was a general perception that the CIT had more to lose under the proposed reforms.
The logical interpretation of a merger would be that CIT has been taken over by the UC, Ms Gilmour said.
She believed if a full-scale merger were to take place, a completely new institution would need to be formed.
This would be anathema to Professor Parker, who has channelled his energies into building the UCs reputation and brand recognition.
NTEU UC branch president Craig Applegate said there were financial structural barriers which would need to be overcome in any merger, given the UC is funded by the Commonwealth and runs at a profit, while the CIT is funded by the ACT Government and runs at a loss.
Professor Bradleys report will be put out for consultation for two months.
