Former Plibersek adviser appointed to top universities job

He is due to take up the Universities Australia role in February, just as the first major review of the sector is due to be made public, and admits he will be thrown in the deep end. But with 20 years’ experience in and around universities, he is across the issues better than most.

“Just how big and how bold [a proposed accord between universities and the federal government would be] could well be a metaphor of the government,” Mr Sheehy said.

“They’re certainly heading towards a period where we think about our universities as a national system for the first time ever and how universities interact with each other,” Mr Sheehy said.

“There’s going to be a tertiary education and research commission, that’s pretty obvious. There will be some serious thinking about what does the national university system do for the national interest?

“So the Universities Australia’s role will be even more amplified.”

Despite reported division and rancour among parts of the university sector, which occasionally spills into the public arena, “there’s a lot of things in common that bring universities together”, he said.

“Yes, and there is diversity. So diversity is our strength as a sector. There are regional universities, there are city universities, universities of applied research and technology, like where I’ve come from, and there’s ... comprehensive research-intensive universities.

“We all teach more than a million students. We change people’s lives by giving them access to world-class education and skills.

Test of mediation skills

”We develop solutions to wicked problems, all of us are doing research. There’s a lot more strength in what brings us all together and I hope to make that part of what I bring to Universities in Australia.”

Mr Sheehy’s mediation and negotiation skills could be sorely tested from the beginning of the universities accord, which includes a tax on international students. The proposal was contained in the review’s interim report released in July and has created a huge amount of tension within the sector.

Despite having worked for two Labor education ministers, Mr Sheehy denied being a political insider.

“Absolutely not. I am someone who has worked in the sector for the last 20 years and more than three-quarters of that time has been working for universities or university peak bodies,” he said.

“While I describe myself as a policy nerd who enjoys making changes, advocating for good policy and making it happen in the national system, for most of the time that I’ve worked in universities, we’ve had governments of different persuasions.

“I work across the aisle with great comfort and I look forward to continuing that whoever wins the next election.”