Speaking at the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association conference in Adelaide, Sheehy said universities in Australia were facing an unprecedented compliance burden, with some institutions now required to comply with as many as 300 separate legislative, regulatory and reporting obligations.
“Over the past few years, universities have experienced a dramatic escalation in regulatory burden, political scrutiny and government intervention,” he said in a speech on May 21.
“There is now a growing sense across the sector that almost every issue facing Australia eventually lands on the desk of a university vice-chancellor – migration, housing, foreign policy, social cohesion, AI, campus culture, student safety, mental health… the list goes on.”
“With every new issue comes another review, another reporting process, another framework, another assurance mechanism, another ministerial direction, another regulator,” he said.
With every new issue comes another review, another reporting process, another framework, another assurance mechanism, another ministerial direction, another regulator
Luke Sheehy, Universities Australia
Sheehy argued that increasing government oversight was diverting resources away from universities’ core missions.
“Every hour spent feeding those systems is an hour not spent on teaching, research or supporting students.”
He said the sector was entering “a new era of higher education policy in Australia”, defined by “stewardship, intervention, oversight and increasingly regulation”.
The comments come weeks after legislation formally established the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC), a key recommendation of the Universities Accord that has been tasked with providing long-term stewardship of Australia’s tertiary education system.
The body will help oversee funding arrangements, mission-based compacts and efforts to strengthen pathways between higher education and vocational training.
Sheehy said Universities Australia had supported the creation of ATEC and “pushed hard to strengthen it”, arguing the sector needed long-term thinking and stability.
While stressing that the sector supports reform, Sheehy said universities were concerned that ATEC could become another layer of bureaucracy.
“The sector does not need another body adding duplication, reporting obligations and administrative burden,” he said.
“It needs a body capable of simplifying the system, reducing overlap, driving better co-ordination between agencies and helping lift higher education out of the political cycle and into a more stable, long-term national framework.”
“The ATEC should be a steward of the system,” he said. “Not a controller of institutions.”
In Adelaide, Sheehy warned against a “more interventionist model” of higher education governance.
“Universities are not departments of state,” he said. “They are independent institutions… with their own missions, expertise and statutory responsibilities. That independence matters.”
“What we are seeing emerge is a much more interventionist model where government increasingly wants visibility, influence and leverage over how universities operate. Once autonomy is eroded, it’s very difficult to get it back.”
He warned that “stewardship cannot become central planning” and that “coordination cannot become regulatory overreach”.
Sheehy also pushed back against the idea that regulation alone can drive sector reform.
“You cannot compliance-framework your way to innovation,” he said. “You cannot regulate universities into boldness. And you cannot build globally competitive universities while treating them like delivery agencies of government.”
He said the system had become “too complex, too duplicative and too heavy”, adding that “right now, our sector feels the balance is wrong”.
