Despite previous stalled efforts, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia are now closer than ever to merging, after reviving talks to merge and rebrand as a single institution within three years.
Key points:
- A combined university would be called the University of Adelaide and would be operational from January 2026
- The government says there will be “no net job losses” as a result of the deal
- An earlier merger effort was revealed in 2018, but fell apart months later
The State Government has said the two universities had agreed “a formal pathway” to combine and will now work together to build a feasibility and business case to become Australia’s largest university by to national students.
The university would be called the University of Adelaide and would be operational from January 2026.
Deputy Prime Minister Susan Close said that while it was not yet a deal, the two universities were closer to a formal merger than they had been last time.
“The two universities have now agreed to go through a feasibility phase to see if they want to go ahead with a merger,” he said.
“This [would] it immediately put us as the largest educator of Australian students in the country, the second largest educator of low-level students. [socio-economic] background and in the top 10 for Aboriginal students going to university.”
The state government has pledged to contribute financially to the cost of a merger deal, but said there would be “no net job losses as a result of the creation of the combined university”.
Deputy Prime Minister Susan Close said the universities had agreed on a name and leadership structure. (ABC News: Ethan Rix)
He also said a merger would require new legislation to create and govern the institution and that the Commonwealth had agreed to support the feasibility assessment.
Close said the state government would determine how much money it would need to invest in the coming weeks, but did not give a dollar figure.
Name and leadership obstacles have been removed
An earlier proposal to merge was announced amid public fanfare in June 2018, but failed without a detailed explanation months later.
Last year, the ABC revealed that senior officials could not agree on what to name the institution and how to choose its leaders, but Ms Close said that this time those hurdles had been overcome. had eliminated
“While there is no guarantee that this will go ahead, we are already much further along than we have ever been,” he said.
“They’ve agreed on the name, the leadership and we’ve been able to sign a document with the South Australian government involved as well. None of those three things have happened before.”
The chancellor of the University of Adelaide, Catherine Branson, is optimistic about the prospects of the proposal. (Provided: University of Adelaide)
In a joint statement, University of Adelaide Chancellor Catherine Branson and UniSA Chancellor Pauline Carr said they were “delighted” at the prospect of joining forces.
“With the right government support, we believe all of this is possible and through our feasibility phase we hope to demonstrate that it can become a reality,” they said.
“We believe that through a union of equals and combining the best of our current institutions, a future institution could provide education of the highest quality.”
During its time in opposition, Labor pledged to establish a University Amalgamation Commission, but has now said that, in the face of the announcement, it would now “postpone the establishment” of a commission “until at least mid-2023”.