The federal government’s higher education reforms -- which include proposals to establish teaching-only universities -- threaten the fundamental operations of universities according to CQU Vice Chancellor & President John Rickard.

“I would find it abhorrent if CQU were forced to be a teaching only university,” said Professor Rickard for an upcoming interview with ABC’s Four Corners.

“You cannot be a university and only teach,” explained the Vice Chancellor. The ABC Four Corners report on issues facing higher education is due for broadcast 27 June 830pm.

Professor Rickard told ABC’s Ticky Fullerton that scholarly activity within an institution should influence the development of its curriculum.

“I prefer the term teaching-intensive, where the university is deeply involved in the development and ongoing reengineering and reconfiguration of its curriculum through -- and influenced by -- scholarly activity,” explained Professor Rickard, a mathematician and economist.

Four Corners, which spoke to as many as five institutions, also interviewed CQU Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic and Research Professor Jim Mienczakowski. The report will cover the depth of the national university crisis and what sort of education students can expect in the future. It will likely highlight the impact of decreased federal funding and focus on changes that universities are making, and will have to make, due to Education Minister Dr Brendan Nelson’s reforms and competition within the international education market.