The education minister, Christopher Pyne, has given the university sector a history lesson about the record of the late former Liberal prime minister Robert Menzies in a speech calling on higher education providers to embrace a “new freedom” and seek philanthropic donations.



Pyne mentioned Menzies 35 times in his 44-minute address to Universities Australia, arguing that the country’s longest serving prime minister had “laid the foundation for the university system we have today”.

Addressing a dinner audience in Canberra on Wednesday, Pyne said he wanted to give the sector a sense of the classical values that would guide his approach to universities.

The minister said freedom and autonomy would be the hallmarks of the Abbott government’s posture towards universities. The government was “determined to remove the dead hand of excessive reporting and regulation”. No university “was ever regulated into excellence”.

“The single most important thing I want to say tonight is to encourage you to embrace with enthusiasm the new freedom that this government plans for the university sector,” Pyne said.

“As we reduce the burden of regulation on universities, I would urge you to grasp your destiny into your own hands. Each institution should be clear about its purpose and its goals, and pursue its own goals as well, as distinctively, and as innovatively as it can – and for this, I will provide my very strong support.

“We must escape the self-restricting psychology of looking always to government for what can or cannot be done, while claiming to want freedom. Do not look to Canberra to be told what to do.”

Pyne said the government would be guided by enduring values about universities espoused by Menzies, whom he credited as “the father of modern higher education in Australia”.

He said when Menzies became prime minister in 1939, Australia had six universities and 14,000 higher education students in a population of seven million. By the time Menzies retired in 1966 the country had 16 universities and 91,000 higher education students.

Pyne said Menzies had initiated the first inquiry into university funding, championed increases to commonwealth funding, introduced commonwealth scholarships, spoke of the need to ensure a university education was not available only to “a privileged few”, and described how it was “utterly undesirable that any government in a free country should tell a university what and how it is to teach”.

“In line with the liberal tradition, I regard higher education as a profoundly transformative force in the life of an individual,” Pyne said.

“Menzies’ belief in the transforming power of higher education no doubt stemmed from his own lived experience. He was from a modest home, and his education, as much as his obvious intellect, opened doors that would otherwise have been closed to him. He also recognised that education fundamentally changed him, and made him – to his mind – a better person, with much more to offer the world.”

In a sign that the demand-driven system for university funding is likely to remain in place, Pyne said people should not forget the significance of the demand-driven system and the higher education loan program in creating opportunities for people to study at university. Labor introduced an uncapped, demand-driven system for university places during the last term of government which cleared the way for more people to enter university. Pyne is considering a report he commissioned reviewing the impact of the demand-driven system on quality.

The minister vowed to strengthen international education but spoke of the “diabolical fiscal challenge” when discussing university funding. He said the government had no realistic alternative but to proceed with the majority of university funding savings announced by the former government – but now “hypocritically and irresponsibly” opposed by Labor in opposition.

He pointed to Menzies’ strong advocacy of philanthropy towards universities. He too hoped to see “increasing support and encouragement from business and the wider community, in the form of philanthropy, research partnerships, and commercial ventures”.

Pyne said every university could work with their domestic and international alumni communities and with their other potential friends to help gather resources for truly world-class universities.

The shadow minister for higher education, Kim Carr, said Pyne needed a “refresher course in history”.

“I think by comparison to the modern-day Liberal party Menzies would be a socialist,” he said. “He certainly would turn in his grave on what is being done in his name.

“What’s happened is the Liberal party has become a reactionary force in Australia and it’s no longer a Liberal party; not a party of Menzies.”

Carr will deliver his own speech to the annual Universities Australia conference on Thursday morning, contrasting Tony Abbott’s “laissez faire” approach with Labor’s preference for a “partnership or compact” with higher education providers.

“The free market approach in education will always entrench privilege and benefit the strong, especially in matters of fee deregulation for domestic undergraduate students,” Carr will say, according to speech notes provided in advance of his address.

“[Australians] don’t buy the simplistic view that governments are elected just to get out of the way.”

Universities Australia announced on Wednesday it had struck a workplace learning agreement with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and the Australian Collaborative Education Network.

The chair of Universities Australia, Sandra Harding, told the National Press Club the “statement of intent” committed the groups to work together on improving the breadth and value of placements conducted as part of university study. They aimed to deliver useful experience that improved students’ prospects upon graduation.