As Chair of the Australian Universities Accord Review – the most wide-ranging review of the Australian higher education sector in the last 15 years, released in early 2024 – O’Kane is eminently well placed to consider the implementation of the review’s recommendations to date and, as she titled her address, ‘the missing pieces of the Accord puzzle’.
Starting with an overview of the sector and what it delivers, O’Kane said despite media claims Australian universities are in trouble, “Actually, in many ways, the story is pretty good... It's a great base to build on and we can adjust various things that are out of whack.”
Noting the Accord was not primarily about what has worked and what hasn’t, but how the higher and tertiary education systems should evolve to address future national skills and knowledge needs, O’Kane outlined the review’s terms of reference and the government’s adoption of 36 recommendations in full or in part.
“The minister often says that implementing the Accord is a multi-year venture and I think that is sensible.”
Think of [the higher education sector] as core activities with an associated agenda of challenges - some well articulated with reasonably developed solutions from the Accord, and others needing further work.
Emeritus Professor Mary O’Kane AC
What the Accord didn’t do
O’Kane then addressed challenges that were covered to varying degrees in the Accord but either “they became more urgent since the Accord and the Accord did not go far enough, or they weren't directly in the terms of reference and we did not have the resources or time to address them adequately, [or] we sensed the pushback was too strong.”
This included the “very big issue” of technology changes and how AI and the move to increasing online learning will affect what universities do – and while the Accord did cover workforce issues in some depth, “we did not adequately address size, shape and dynamics of the higher education workforce in the light of the skills through equity massive sector growth and the technology changes, especially the AI related changes, to educational research.”
O’Kane flagged the “treadmills and tangles” of university funding and complex related rules saying: “Very few can monitor how they interact with each other. Universities often need to cross subsidise various functions in ways that can lead to perverse outcomes.”
Noting costing and pricing was possibly the most important matter the Accord working group wanted to get to and didn’t, O’Kane was pleased to report: “We are tackling it with a working party of ATEC, chaired by Stephen Duckett, the great expert on hospital costing and pricing, and working with many experts from across the sector.”
Other matters O’Kane considered were not fully covered included the sector’s infrastructure needs and how they should be funded, the ideal size and location of universities, diversity of operational and business models within the higher education domain, how to act like a system while respecting institutional autonomy, and how to define higher education – as well as "the vexed questions” of regulation and social licence.
“The sector seems to be unusually troubled compared to other sectors. Is that unusual about the sector or something we should be doing differently? This is something of an open question about whether it is winning or losing the battle for social licence. My sense of the moment, on balance, it is it is losing.”
Australian Tertiary Education Commission
To conclude, O’Kane described her planned handover to the incoming Chief Commissioner of the permanent ATEC.
“Think of [the higher education system] not so much as a jigsaw puzzle with the Accord covering a great swathe of the picture in a neat interlocked way, and a box of missing bits... but rather, think of it as core activities with an associated agenda of challenges,” she said.
"Some well articulated with reasonably developed solutions from the Accord, and others needing further work. Indeed, I think some of them will need permanent work because I think they are perennial. Things like red tape and social licence.
“To allow the core of higher education, if you like, transmitting knowledge and creating new knowledge, to evolve successfully and flourish, that agenda of challenges needs ongoing work on all of those component challenges, and needs to be done simultaneously by ATEC and the sector more broadly.
“Hopefully, ATEC will tick off a lot of things from the challenge list but sometimes extra heft might be needed and there will be a need for another review. A review like the Accord Review or better still, one of the quality of the one chaired by Denise Bradley.”
Vice-President (External Engagement) Kirsten Andrews, Chancellor David Thodey, Emeritus Professor Bruce King, Emeritus Professor Mary O'Kane, Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Mark Scott. Photo credit: University of Sydney / Michael Amendolia.
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LinkThe Bradley Oration
The Bradley Oration honours the late Professor Denise Bradley AC, an alumna of the University of Sydney (B Arts in 1962 and Honoris Causa in 2017), who, among other major reforms and achievements, led the 2008 higher education review that gave rise to Australia’s demand-driven funding system, as well as the establishment of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). She also served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Australia from 1996 to 2007.
2025 Orator Emerita Professor Mary O’Kane AC is currently Interim Chair of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, Chair of the Australian Energy Market Operator, Chair of Business Events Sydney and Executive Chairman of O’Kane Associates. She has previously been Chair of the NSW Independent Planning Commission, NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide.
Attendees of the Oration included higher education leaders from across Australia, as well as Professor Bradley's husband Bruce King, sons James Bradley and Patrick Bradley, and granddaughters Mia and Juno Bradley.
The University of Sydney’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services) Professor Reuben Bolt delivered a powerful Acknowledgement of Country, Chancellor David Thodey provided the introduction, Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Mark Scott AO provided the vote of thanks, and Vice-President (External Engagement) Kirsten Andrews served as MC of the proceedings.
Photo credits: University of Sydney / Michael Amendolia
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