The Innovative Research Universities responded to yesterday’s Senate committee report on their international agreements (above) with a practical proposal

“If universities remain within the scope of the legislation, a spectrum of risk should be applied to each arrangement to ensure DFAT does not disproportionally focus its resources on routine and low-risk activity at the expense of proper monitoring of higher risk activities.”

Universities Australia wants changes

Universities Australia says its members should be written out of the bill but if not, ““significant amendment is required. Our primary concerns go to both the workability of these laws that will cover thousands and thousands of agreements and the deterrent effect this could have on international partnerships.”