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.
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.
The initial summary of each focus area included below, alongside the questions for consideration by the Steering Committee. Updates on works for each area will be included by 31 July 2025. For further questions, please reach out to secretariat@ucc.edu.au.
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The SLSC’s first area of focus identified was student safety, inclusion, and respectful dialogue - an area that surfaces repeatedly in public discourse.
Recent events have heightened concerns around student safety and discrimination on campus, particularly for Jewish, Muslim, and other student minority groups. Alongside this, since the National Student Safety Survey in 2021 there has been increasing concern around safety on campus in the context of sexual harassment and sexual assault. There is growing concern that universities need to take a stronger and more visible role in ensuring student safety, fostering inclusive dialogue, and responding decisively to discrimination while upholding freedom of expression and academic integrity.
How can universities strengthen their capacity to create and maintain inclusive, respectful, and safe campus environments in a way that actively prevents harassment, discrimination, and marginalisation while also promoting open and constructive academic discourse?
What role should universities play in setting and communicating cultural expectations to ensure students understand their rights, available protections, and responsibilities as members of a diverse university community?
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There is growing concern and ongoing public dialogue over fairness in university workforce practices, including the increasing casualisation of academic staff, complex and protracted enterprise bargaining processes, and cases of underpayment. At the same time, public and political scrutiny of Vice Chancellor and senior executive remuneration has intensified.
How can universities strengthen trust in their workforce practices while ensuring they remain competitive employers?
How can we balance the need for strong leadership with public expectations for fairness and transparency in executive remuneration?
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Universities must proactively ensure that best governance practices are implemented, consistently applied, and transparently disclosed.
How can universities proactively foster an environment that supports and embeds the recommendations that will come from the Expert Council on University Governance?
What steps should universities take to ensure best governance practices are implemented consistently and disclosed transparently to stakeholders, ensuring accountability and trust in the sector?
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in the lead up to the 2025 federal election, universities had a critical opportunity to advocate for sustainable funding, policy certainty, and recognition of their role as national assets.
Universities Australia (UA) has already undertaken work in this space, but multiple university groups, unions, and business groups have their own policy priorities - some of which intersect with higher education. Coordination of these areas for a nationalised approach will avoid fragmented advocacy efforts, which risk diluting the sector’s influence and reducing the effectiveness of its collective voice.
How can universities ensure that their advocacy efforts are aligned across the sector, bringing together existing work by different university groups, while also exploring common ground with unions and business groups?
Can a unified election platform be developed that strengthens the sector’s ability to influence policy outcomes?
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Trust in public institutions - including universities - is increasingly fragile. While the sector delivers immense public value in education, research, and innovation, this value is not always clearly communicated or widely understood. Fragmented narratives, inconsistent messaging, and reactive media engagement risk weakening the public perception of universities’ role and relevance.
At a time when disinformation, polarisation, and distrust are rising, universities must reassert their public purpose through clear, coordinated, and proactive communications. The sector has a unique opportunity to serve as a trusted source of knowledge and evidence-based information—but only if it embraces this role collectively and strategically.
How can universities work together to establish a consistent, proactive, and effective public messaging framework that builds trust, demonstrates relevance, and communicates the sector’s public purpose in a compelling and coordinated way?
What principles should guide the development of a national communications approach that supports both sector-wide advocacy and institutional autonomy?
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Australia’s international education sector is a critical national asset. Growing political and community concerns have prompted proposals for student visa caps and tighter restrictions on international student enrolments at Australian universities. Blanket limits on student numbers risk undermining a major export sector, destabilising institutional finances, and diminishing Australia’s reputation as an international provider of high-quality education. These issues must be addressed transparently and in collaboration with the sector. There are also concerns raised that in some courses or classroom settings, the concentration of international students may unintentionally impact the student experience.
How can Australia’s universities and government work together to ensure that international student numbers remain sustainable and transparent, while addressing concerns around housing, infrastructure, and quality through distinct, evidence-based policies?
How can governments and universities jointly explore mechanisms—such as raising caps on domestic student access—to complement international student policy reform, support broader national goals, and maintain Australia’s competitive standing as a world-leading study destination?
How can universities ensure that growth in international enrolments does not compromise domestic students’ educational experience, and instead fosters a more globally enriched, inclusive, and academically rigorous learning environment for all?
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.