Time for a Western Australian 'Group of Three'? - A speculative essay - Michael Turner & Alistair Brown

Oct 15, 2026

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The essay evaluates theoretical cost savings from merging three public universities in Western Australia to form a Western Australian “Group of Three” (WAGo3): Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, and Murdoch University. It argues that such an amalgamation could reduce operating costs while improving non-current asset use and accountability through combined reporting for stakeholders. The study also considers financial patterns such as maintaining higher non-salary expenditure relative to revenue and preserving land and buildings as core assets.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

University backgrounds and context

Literature review

Prior interest in mergers and policy history

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Time for a Western Australian ‘Group of Three’? A speculative essay Michael Turner & Alistair Brown Curtin University This study analyses the theoretical cost-savings that might flow from a merger of three of Western Australia’s five universities. The results of the study show that an amalgamation would not only reduce costs of operation, but also improve non-current asset use and accountability. Combination reporting also allows the key stakeholders to appraise these universities’ main financial activities, which appear to be maintaining a relatively high level of non-salary expenditure as a percentage of revenue and preserving a very high percentage of land and buildings as mainstay assets. Keywords: mergers, efficiency and effectiveness, Western Australian universities Introduction This paper explores the potential cost savings from a creation of a Western Australian Group of Three university (WAGo3), via an amalgamation of three of the five universities in Western Australia. Western Australia is Australia’s largest state by land area (over 2,500,000 km2) occupying the western one-third of Australia. Sparsely populated in the rural regions, Western Australia has a population of 2.53 million, with most living in the Perth metropolitan area (1.55 million) . Using one million people as the criterion for a ‘city’, Perth is one of the most isolated cities in the world.The nearest Australian city to Perth by air is Adelaide which is 2,100 km away. Moreover, major cities more than 3,000 km away from Perth include Jakarta, Indonesia (3,000 km), Melbourne (3,420 km) and Sydney (3,290 km) . Most of Australia’s first universities were founded in the 19th century in other states (although the University of Queensland was founded in 1909), with the University of Western Australia (UWA) founded in 1911 but opened in 1913.The other four WA universities are relatively young. Harkin and Healy (2013) note that Curtin University, a former technical college,was established in 1986,Murdoch University was established in 1973 but opened in 1975,and Edith Cowan University (ECU),formerly a teachers’college, then a college of advanced education, was established in 1991. Notre Dame University was established in 1989, but it is a private university and outside the scope of this study which focuses on the potential merger of three public Western Australian universities.The University of Western Australia is the only one in the state of Western Australia to sit in the Top 100 Academic Ranking of World Universities ranking (AWRU, 2014) . 60 Time for a Western Australian ‘Group of Three’? Michael Turner & Alistair Brown vol. 57, no. 1, 2015 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W We look at a merged WAGo3 comprising Curtin University, Edith Cowan University and Murdoch University.We did not include UWA in the merger because, consistent with the recent findings of Turner and Brown (2013), there appears merit in merging UWA with other relatively older and more established universities. Each of the three suggested merging universities is successful in its own right. Curtin University is renowned for its close ties to the mining giants Alcoa, Chevron, Origin Energy and Woodside Petroleum (Curtin University, 2013a); ECU has a fine nursing and midwifery research ranking (ECU, 2013a); and Murdoch University has the only internationally recognised veterinary course in Western Australia (Murdoch University, 2011) . Nevertheless, according to Ernst & Young (2012), there is potential for Australian universities to lower their operating costs in order to become more competitive in the academic market. The aim of this paper is to analyse the theoretical potential cost-savings in forming a WAGo3 . This follows from the work of Turner & Brown (2013) that considered the case for a merged Australian ‘Group of Seven’(Go7), which had the potential to boost the bottom line b

FAQs

What universities are included in the proposed WAGo3 merger?

Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, and Murdoch University are included as the three-university merger group.

Why does the proposal exclude the University of Western Australia (UWA)?

UWA is not included because the essay suggests merit in merging it with other relatively older and more established universities instead.

What benefits does the study claim from combining the universities’ operations?

The essay argues that a merger would reduce operating costs and improve non-current asset use and accountability through combination reporting.

Oct 15, 2026

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