Last month, Education Minister Jason Clare introduced new regulations that should help stop some of the rot eating away at Australia's universities.

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It says a lot about the current state of universities in Australia that these new regulations will require them to "oversee" risks to their social licence.

One would think that survival instinct would be enough to make sure you don't totally alienate the public who fund you.

How can we ensure that the council members entrusted by Australians to manage higher education and research do so in the public interest?

In other parts of the world, this obligation is baked into the documents that govern universities.

For example, the University of California's legal status as a public trust depends on it existing for the benefit of California's people. Italy's University of Bologna, which is widely regarded as the world's first university, must guarantee the knowledge it generates is for "the benefit of individuals and society as a whole."

This is the promise of the public university, and the survival of Australia's higher education institutions depends on its realisation.

The revisions to the Higher Education Standards Framework say that, starting next year, the councils that are responsible for managing universities must publish details of the decisions they make when they meet.

Imagine that: a public body having to tell the public what they discuss when they make decisions about a public institution. We expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to explain to Australians why it makes decisions about interest rates, and government departments are often subjected to gruelling Senate estimates hearings. Why should university councils be able to hide in the shadows?

This is basic stuff, but it's become necessary since universities began acting like they are above the students, staff, and communities they should be........

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