The social licence challenge
Deakin's Vice-Chancellor is leading a national conversation on declining trust in universities and what can be done.
Do Australian universities have a social licence?
Vice-Chancellor Professor Iain Martin's white paper addresses the urgent social licence challenge confronting Australian universities. Facing scrutiny over declining academic standards, as well as fees and value for money, universities must prove their relevance and integrity.
The white paper proposes bold recommendations for the sector to demonstrate its importance to the national interest and restore public trust.
The trust crisis
Deakin research has exposed the crisis of confidence facing Australian universities. The study revealed that one third of people don’t trust universities, while 40% believe executives prioritise revenue over quality. Professor Martin says that whether this is perception or reality is now a moot point: Australian universities need to regain public trust. That starts with facing the truth.
Source: Deakin University, 2025
The Australian public doesn’t doubt the importance of higher education; Australians doubt its integrity. They see a sector that has prospered from international students, that is distracted by global rankings and is seemingly unconcerned about our community’s worries.
Vice-Chancellor
A timeless challenge
In 1987, then Federal Education Minister the Hon. John Dawkins challenged universities to question whether they were meeting the expectations of Australians whose taxes fund higher education. He urged that 'Australia now must examine the performance of its higher education system. ...We must ask the institutions ... what they see as their role in the social, cultural and economic lives of Australians, and ask them to examine how effectively they are discharging their roles'.
These words still hit home, because the compact between universities and the nation continues. As Vice-Chancellor Professor Martin highlighted at Future Campus HE FEST 2025: ‘In 1987, it mattered. It matters now. It will matter long after us: universities exist not only to advance knowledge, but to serve the public good. This enduring challenge frames our current responsibility to rebuild the connection between universities and our communities; to start listening to the nation that funds us.’
Rebuilding public trust
Vice-Chancellor Professor Iain Martin spoke at the 2025 AFR Higher Education Summit (pictured) and at Future Campus HE FEST 2025 about rebuilding trust in Australian universities and the sector's social licence challenge.
The way forward
According to Professor Martin, 'Australia's universities have lost their way. To restore public confidence in what we do and why, we must change our culture; we must look Australians in the eye and prove we exist to serve them, their children, their industries and their future prosperity'.
Actions not words
The white paper, co-authored by Vice-Chancellor Professor Iain Martin and Senior Adviser David Reeves, seeks to motivate collective action within and outside the sector. It calls on the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) to work with universities to embed social licence as a core requirement of compact agreements and makes several key recommendations:
Teaching must be the most valued and visible part of what we do
University leaders must prioritise education and research equally. One in three Australians question our value. We must earn their trust through relevance, quality teaching, exceptional student experience, and real learning outcomes.Universities must be safe places for open debate
University campuses must be safe places where ideas are tested, not silenced. We must protect students while championing intellectual courage, academic rigour and open debate. Our duty is to prepare students for challenging ideas, not to make ideas safe for students.We must uphold integrity in research
Universities must be honest brokers seeking truth, not ideological advocates. We must be transparent about processes, elevate quality over quantity, embody excellence and advance understanding, and measure impact by its benefit to Australia – not citations or rankings.We must be clear, fair and responsible to rebuild trust
Universities must communicate clearly – no jargon, no evasion. Our sector’s credibility has been corroded by headlines about executive pay, underpayments and excessive consulting. These signal a values problem. The path forward is simple: serve, listen and speak plainly.Universities must redefine their role in the national compact
Universities must put the national interest before institutional agendas and build a culture focused on education, teaching and student experience. Australians fund us to serve the public good: helping the country prosper, staying cohesive, being open to new knowledge.
Our sector must recognise that we have a problem and commit to addressing it collaboratively and systematically. We can claim a social licence to operate only when Australians once again believe universities are working for them.
Vice-Chancellor
Speeches, interviews and articles
Professor Martin regularly contributes to public debates on matters affecting the higher education sector. Read about our positions on policy, education, research and other matters of interest.
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