WESTERN Australia's universities could become an election battleground, with Opposition Leader Mark McGowan flagging a plan to give the state's seats of learning more financial and educational freedom.
In an early state election gambit, the Labor leader said there was an urgent need to cut the red tape holding back WA's universities.
Mr McGowan said his plan would give colleges the power to create and run companies, freeing up more money for them to become innovation hubs and sell themselves as the smart state to the massive Asian educational market.
"I want to expand our service exports, especially education," Mr McGowan told a business function on Thursday.
"At present, WA educational exports are worth almost $1.2 billion a year but they could be much more.
"Red tape is one of the biggest disincentives to innovation and it's hampering our universities' ability to attract finance and gives them no security over how they are allowed to develop their land."
New laws proposed by the party would allow universities security of land tenure while giving them the freedom to generate income on the back of that, similar to Victoria's recent reforms.
"We will modernise the legislation binding WA universities to give them both security of land tenure and the ability to undertake commercial activity to create hubs of innovation and enterprise," Mr McGowan said.
"We will give our universities the tools to be entrepreneurial with their land ... to generate income that can be reinvested into all manner of research and innovation."
Mr McGowan said universities may want to embark on residential, retail or scientific developments on their land to generate more money.
"What they would like to do is undertake commercial activities - it might be retail, they might be scientific, they might be residential," he told reporters after the function.
"But it is affording (them) the right to use their land in accordance with their priorities and ensure they can reinvest what they may.
"Obviously you have to make sure they comply with relevant planning laws, but it gives them freedom."
Education Minister Peter Collier said the state government was aware of the land issues and said discussions with the universities were ongoing.
"There is no doubt that the university sector has undergone significant change and development over the past two decades and has grown into a globally competitive marketplace that is worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually," Mr Collier said.
"I continue to have ongoing discussions with the heads of our five universities to identify and develop potential strategies that could provide them with adequate flexibility to remain competitive in the global market."
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