Canberra Institute of Technology

From Hannah Neill.

The outgoing Canberra Institute of Technology Chief Executive has discontinued legal action against her previous employer, TAFE NSW.

Margot McNeill resigned from her CIT position last month after a Legislative Assembly Privileges Committee recommended she be investigated for breaching public service standards after her overly litigious and combative approach to a separate inquiry.

She was paid a settlement of $445,000 after her resignation.

So let me just introduce them and then I'll talk a little bit about what the ATEC is and then I'll go into the panel.

So to start with, I have on my right Dr. Margot McNeil, the CEO of the Canberra Institute of Technology.

For those of you who don't know Canberra, CIT is our TAFE equivalent public provider.

Hopefully the CVs are all kind of somewhere because if I have to read out what all these people have done and all their qualifications, we're going to be here all afternoon.

So I'm not going to do that, but I am going to say what their kind of specialisation is, because I think this is fascinating.

So, the University of Canberra and Canberra Institute of Technology, which is why these two are both on the panel, are doing a lot of work.

There's been a lot of publicity about the work that they've done in the last year or so.

So, Margot, just from your perspective, what is that collaboration about? What are you trying to achieve coming from CIT? What are your priorities for this collaboration?

Now from page five, we have CIT Chair Defends Payout to Former Chief by Jasper Lindell.

The Canberra Institute of Technology had no simple or cost-free option available after the employment relationship with its former chief executive broke down, the Institute's board chair says.

Tom Rogers told a parliamentary inquiry the board had to choose between continuing a complex employment and legal process of uncertain duration, costs and outcome, with achieving an immediate and certain resolution.

Dr Margot McNeill resigned from the Institute earlier this month and received a payout from the public TAFE College.

The monetary payment to be made to Dr McNeill of $445,250 was agreed after considering a range of legal rights and entitlements arising from the breakdown in the relationship between CIT and Dr McNeill, Mr Rogers' letter to the Budget Estimates Committee said.

Navigating this breakdown was challenging, complex and required consideration of a number of at times competing factors involving personnel, legal and commercial issues.

The Budget Estimates Committee on Friday said the Canberra Institute of Technology needed to cut its spending on executive staff and put more funding back into teaching and courses.

The Institute has announced it needed to cut at least 10% from its budget to reach financial sustainability, but courses would not be lost as part of the savings program.

Its every move is tracked on a screen as it dances around what used to be a basketball court.

University of New South Wales Canberra has converted the court at the former CIT Reid campus into a cutting-edge facility where researchers and entrepreneurs can test robotic devices.

Professor Matthew Garrett said it is one of the largest spaces of its kind in Australia.

"We can track up to, say, thirty robots at once, and we know exactly where they are and their orientation," he said.

Story by Jasper Lindell.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr says he believes combining the University of Canberra and the Canberra Institute of Technology is the right outcome and he has learned a lot from the failed effort to bring them together 15 years ago.

A new agreement between the University of Canberra and the ACT Government commits the two to exploring a dual-sector institution as they work on a shared vision for post-secondary education.

The university will also examine establishing an independent student union and has committed to supporting more elected members on its council.

We will achieve this through exploration of dual-sector establishment, more streamlined recognition of prior learning and experience, expansion of micro-credentials, short courses and executive education programs.

and better integration of work-integrated learning into the UC curriculum, the agreement said.

Mr Barr on Monday said he was aware of the risks and pitfalls in the process of bringing the university and the Canberra Institute of Technology together.

I believe it's the right outcome, he said.