The former, now shadow, education minister spoke at the Universities Australia conference yesterday

It was a tough platform for Mr Tudge given the new government has not had time to stuff anything up and the last government did not bother to disguise its disdain for universities.

So he looked forward politically by appealing to the past, urging Minister Clare to keep the previous government’s  Job Ready Graduates funding model and its research commercialisation plan.

It may not have been entirely well-intentioned advice.

JRG is a riddle with teeth, trapped in an explosive enigma. Dismantling existing student HECs categories and consequentially varying what the government pays to support a range of UG places would be immensely complex. Without much more money, defusing it could convert existing winners, students and deans both, into losers and the other way around. Mr Clare has said JRG will be considered in the process for the universities accord. The politically easiest outcome there would be for the government to leave things as is and keep blaming the opposition.

As for research commercialisation – the new government may differ on details but Labor ministers appear interested in applied research that generates jobs, much like their predecessors.

But since the election, university leaders are starting to speak up on the importance of pure research. Universities Australia John Dewar raised at the UA conference Wednesday. The challenge for the government is to keep talking about jobs, just not for researchers whose work will not find a ready market.