Uni downplayed nepotism scandal: report

THE University of Queensland put its reputation above the public interest by downplaying a scandal in which the vice-chancellor's daughter was given a scholarship ahead of worthier candidates.

The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) says the daughter of former Vice-Chancellor Paul Greenfield was awarded a place in the medical school over 343 more suitable applicants, despite failing a qualifying exam.

The watchdog released its review of Ms Greenfield's admission on Friday.

The scandal forced the resignation of Prof Greenfield and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Keniger in late 2011.

University staff did not immediately report their nepotism concerns because Mr Greenfield himself was the public official charged with reporting such matters to the CMC.

CMC acting assistant commissioner Kathleen Florian says the university then played down the scandal in public statements in order to protect its reputation.

"The right balance was not struck between the public interest on the one hand, and protecting the reputation of the university and the reputations of the two most senior officers on the other," she told reporters.

"After the university publicly stated that the two officers were standing down on the basis of generalised accountability rather than personal responsibility the CMC asked the university to bring forward their resignations and ultimately the university agreed."

However, the CMC found nothing to implicate Ms Greenfield in the scandal and she's still enrolled in the course.

The university admitted on Friday it should have been more open from the beginning and that the UQ senate's decision not to reveal the reasons for the resignations was difficult.

But it said the senate had to weigh up competing interests.

"... the avoidance of operational disruption and reputation damage on the one hand, and the promotion of transparency on the other hand," it said in a statement.

"The university accepts, however, that its response was not well handled and acknowledges that it lacked the transparency called for in the circumstances."

The university said it had noted the CMC's conclusions and had been working on more transparent systems to manage issues of integrity and misconduct.

Ms Florian said the public must be able to have faith that decisions on university places are based on merit and equity, but that had not happened.

She said that state laws should be changed to allow a greater number of staff in public institutions to report misconduct and corruption to the CMC.

"I encourage all public sector agencies to read this report to consider how they could manage conflicts of interest and misconduct involving senior management thus ensuring merit, equity and transparency remains core to decision making," Ms Florian said.

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