Importance of University Governance

Universities are amongst the largest institutions in the Australian economy.  The total HES income exceeds $14 billon per annum (Finance 2005, DEST), and education export is one of our major earners.  So just as government represents community concerns about the governance of corporations and governance failures like HIH, in the past decade a similar focus has shifted onto the governance of universities in Australia , the United Kingdom , USA , and now the European Union

The graphs below put this into context by listing the 25 universities that make it into BRW's 2006 Top 1000 Enterprises, together with their fellows. These include corporations, government statutory authorities, and not-for-profit sectors.

Higher Education managers, specialists and commentators are very familiar with the size and ranking of these public institutions with respect to one another, but how do universities compare in profile, productivity, efficiency, even governance with the community at large?