CIT CEO Dr Margot McNeill: David Coltman has the experience. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Canberra Institute of Technology has defended the engagement of an outside contractor to review academic governance rather than going to executives already on staff.
Questions have been raised about the engagement of former TAFE South Australia CEO David Coltman to provide an independent review of academic monitoring and reporting, aligned to the new Standards for Registered Training Organisations.
Critics, who have also attacked the growing size of the executive team, say the signing raises concerns about transparency, necessity and accountability.
They question why CIT could not have given the work to either one of two highly paid executives whose roles encompass governance issues, accusing CIT of ‘executive indulgence’ and poor judgment in light of the contracts scandal, which cost the previous CEO her job and damaged CIT’s reputation.
But CIT has hit back, saying Mr Coltman has been engaged on a non-ongoing, short-term basis at a cost of less than $25,000.
It said the regulator expected CIT to conduct external benchmarking and review academic processes, and best practice was to engage external subject matter experts to provide an independent view.
CEO Dr Margot McNeill said Mr Coltman had experience with another large provider who had to go through regulatory changes.
“There’s a new set of standards with our regulator, so that’s also adding complexity because we need to make sure that we’re adjusting to those requirements,” she said.
Dr McNeill said Mr Coltman had already done a couple of pieces of such work over the last three years.
“He’s visited CIT twice to be able to develop his understanding, and that means we can work with him quite quickly,” she said.
“He was leading TAFE SA and so he knows the TAFE network very well.
“I know him through the national TAFE network, and he already knew quite a lot about CIT, so it’s a great position to be able to extend on that.”
Australian Education Union secretary Angela Burroughs said CIT staff were suspicious of any outside engagement in light of the very rapid expansion of the executive structure at the expense of frontline teaching staff.
“Yet there doesn’t seem to be the capacity within that expanded executive team to complete the work that Dr McNeill wants done,” she said.
Ms Burroughs said she was not surprised that people were suspicious because they would be suspicious of anything at CIT until its new direction and jobs bargaining were bedded down.
But in this instance, she was prepared to give the new CEO the benefit of the doubt.
Mr Coltman left TAFE SA in June after six years as Chief Executive. In 2022 and 2023, he participated in a benchmarking activity at CIT to share TAFE SA’s good practice.
CIT said the short-term engagement did not require board approval.
