Australia’s biggest university could be created if a merger of regional universities recommended by the recent Bradley review of higher education is adopted. Two regional universities, Lismore-based University of Southern Cross (USC) and Bathurst-based Charles Sturt University (CSU), have already announced they will merge, and USC vice-chancellor Paul Clark has said that more than 70,000 students could attend the new institution if a third university were to join them.

The move anticipates what is understood to be a recommendation for a new mechanism for higher-education provision in regional Australia, based on a serious fall in participation. It is widely perceived that there is over-provision in some places, no provision at all in others, and a lack of will on the part of governments to address the issue.

In a push aimed at getting greater numbers of poorer rural and regional students into tertiary education, however, the two regionally based New South Wales universities said they had the support of deputy prime minister Julia Gillard for the merger. Professor Clark said, “Both the Bradley review and the deputy prime minister are looking for a really innovative approach to regional delivery. We think a commonwealth university [of regional Australia] will have open to it all of the ways to create a national university.”

Professor Clark’s partner in the merger, CSU vice-chancellor Ian Goulter, said a condition of Ms Gillard’s backing is a requirement that the merger include a third university, but one from outside NSW. “Charles Sturt is about providing professionals for regional Australia and there’s an absolute alignment between CSU’s position as the national university of inland Australia and the establishment of a commonwealth cross-state-jurisdiction university,” Professor Goulter said.

From Guy Healey in the Australian