Curtin University's vice-chancellor says a planned merger of three Western Australian universities "solves problems that we don't have and creates problems that we don't need".
The WA government's decision to push ahead with a business case to merge Curtin University, Murdoch University and the University of Western Australia (UWA) has sparked fierce debate, with all three universities and many of their staff raising concerns.
But WA's Tertiary Education Minister Tony Buti said the state's universities were in a "race to the bottom" and that many students had told him they were receiving a "substandard education".
The government argues a mega university catering to around 120,000 students would keep the sector competitive while helping them attract more students and investment.
"There's a hyper-competition between our universities.
We want to ensure that our universities are world-class, that is what this is all about," Mr Buti said.
'Solution looking for a problem' But Curtin University's vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne said the proposal amounted to a "solution looking for a problem", slamming it as a costly process that aimed to "fix something that is not broken".
Professor Hayne hit back at Mr Buti's claims WA's universities were in a race to the bottom.
"If you actually look at the data, 90 per cent of the students who graduate from a Western Australian university get a job within six months and the employers rate them amongst the best in Australia.
I don't think that's the definition of a sub-par degree," she told 102.5 ABC Perth.
Professor Hayne also responded to figures that revealed five individual eastern state universities each received more of Australia’s research funding than all four WA public universities combined.
She laid the blame for that partly at the WA government's feet, saying many of those universities received seed funding from their state governments, allowing them to generate more research funding as part....
