Social Licence Initiative
In February 2025, Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors convened for a Joint Plenary workshop to discuss the social licence for Australian Universities. In March 2025, UCC and UA established a Steering Committee to inform this work ongoing.
Steering Committee
The Social Licence Steering Committee (SLSC) has been established to provide structured, cross-sector leadership in strengthening the public trust in Australia’s universities.
Co-convened by the UCC and Universities Australia (UA), the Steering Committee brings together Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors to identify shared priorities, coordinate action, and advise on sector-wide responses to challenges that arise in the areas of public trust and perception.
The committee recognises that maintaining social licence is critical to the sector’s long-term sustainability and success, and that university social licence is dependent on universities commitment to engagement with their students, their staff, their communities, and society more broadly.
The Steering Committee is made up of 5 Chancellors, 5 Vice-Chancellors, and is co-chaired by the Convenor of the UCC and the Chair of Universities Australia, with Secretariat support provided by the UCC. To ensure Australian Universities are well represented, the committee is compiled of volunteers across multiple states, university networks, and regional/city demographics.
Focus Areas of the Steering Committee
The SLSC’s work is grounded in six agreed priorities that reflect areas of high public interest and internal complexity: student safety and inclusion, workforce reform, governance integrity, federal election positioning, public communication, and the evolving role of international students.
While these are complex and at times contested spaces, they are also areas where proactive engagement, visible leadership and transparent processes are imperative in the building of public trust.
The initiative builds on the shared understanding that social licence is shaped at the intersection of governance, leadership, and community expectations, and that engagement is essential for our universities to progress.
Submissions to the Social Licence Initiative
The Steering Committee is committed to strong consultation as it reviews key areas impacting University social licence - and their potential ramifications for our university communities. As such, both targeted and open stakeholder submissions will be invited to provide essential insight and viewpoints to the committee.
Submissions can be made anytime via the form below. Submissions can be directed towards a specific focus area, or could be for the purpose of alerting the Committee to key areas of concern. We’ve included essential information around scope, making your submission, and confidentiality below.
-
Submissions are open on a rolling basis from April 2025.
Submissions can be directed to any focus area or can be made in order to alert the Steering Committee of a key area of concern arising.
The focus area should be selected on your submission.
-
Submissions should be focused on the scope or area being addressed. On focus areas, a short scope will be included for your reference.
For items outside of the current focus areas, the guide below could be utilised to frame your submission.
Consideration in preparing a submission could include:
What is the issue or concern?
How does it impact you/your community/who you represent?
What impacts could this have on the wider community?
Do you have any suggestions for improvement?
Are there examples of best practice in this area - either in the sector or internationally - which would be useful for the Steering Committee to consider?
When making the submission, please include the focus area in the form, or in the title of your email.
-
The Steering Committee encourages submissions lodged electronically, either via email - secretariat@ucc.edu.au - or via online submission in the form below.
Submissions should be in PDF or Word format.
All submissions made become official Committee documentation on submission.
-
Unless you request a confidential submission, all submissions will be attributed to the Author (for individual submissions) or Organisation (for submissions on behalf of an organisation).
It is the responsibility of the individual making the submission to ensure that no personal or identifying information is included in your submission.
If you would like your submission to remain confidential, please include this in your submission - in the submission note, or the email title - along with the reason for requesting confidentiality.
If you have any questions or require clarification on confidentiality, please reach out to the UCC Secretariat.