Close, who holds the higher education ministerial portfolio, said government representatives would meet with Flinders University Vice-Chancellor Colin Stirling “very soon” to discuss the impacts of its two rivals merging.

She said she respected Flinders University’s decision not to take part in merger discussions. The universities of Adelaide and South Australia announced in December that they had reached an “historic” agreement to work towards an amalgamation.

“I speak constantly to Flinders University, to the Vice-Chancellor Colin Stirling and had a good conversation with him immediately after the two universities announced their intentions and we’ll be sitting down very soon to work through some of the implications for Flinders,” the Deputy Premier said this morning.

“At no point did we expect that we would go from three universities to one and at no point did we actually want that.

“It’s really important that there be some competition domestically and within the state between universities so that people feel that they have a choice of different kinds of institution.

“But, we need to make sure that this isn’t just about creating one new university, it is about having a strong sector and for that reason, I’ll be keeping very close to Flinders University through this process.”

The Universities of Adelaide and South Australia announced in December that they would commission a feasibility study and business case for a merger which, if it goes ahead, would create the biggest university in the country for domestic students.

Should a final decision be made to merge, the combined institution would be called Adelaide University and would be operational from January 2026.

The state government offered an unspecified financial sweetener to the institutions to “maximise the transformational opportunities being pursued”, but Close this morning said no taxpayer money had yet been spent.

“No taxpayers’ money has gone into the merger, of course, because there’s no activity that’s yet occurred for the merger,” she said.

“But, we are well aware that the establishment of a new university… will drive economic growth, better education for our young people (and) will cost some government money.

“We understand that, we accept that we just need to work through with universities what that looks like.”

The Vice-Chancellors of the Universities of Adelaide and South Australia, Peter Høj and David Lloyd, told InDaily in December that they approached Flinders to take part in the merger discussions, but their request was rejected.

Stirling confirmed that Flinders had “not been party to any merger discussions” in a staff email sent after the December announcement.

He wrote that Flinders had a “very positive trajectory in recent years”, which should give staff confidence in the institution’s ability to compete.

Asked this morning if she was concerned about the proposed merger impacting Flinders University financially, Close said it was “quite likely that it would have a positive effect”.

“I don’t think we should assume that it will have a negative effect,” she said.

“When you have two quite distinct institutions you create the kind of competition and value proposition that will mean that people who don’t want to be part of this kind of institution will be drawn to the other institution.

“Flinders will also, of course, be concentrating on growing and doing what it does well, not thinking about doing a merger, but there will be just some type of complexities where the three universities are sharing engagement at the moment on some activities and what that looks like if there are only two institutions.

“That’s what we’re particularly interested in just working through with all three.”

In a statement this afternoon, Stirling told InDaily that Flinders University was “committed to being a constructive partner in the state government’s process designed to secure the strongest possible university sector in South Australia – healthy, competitive and that offers students choice”.

Close said over the past month, the Universities of Adelaide and South Australia had worked on how they would consult students and staff about the proposed merger.

She said she had also set up a higher education policy unit within her department “to accompany the universities as they start to really engage in this deeply”.

“They (the universities) have said that by the end of June they will have… entered into a process of due diligence to really test out all of the dimensions of what that (merger) would look like,” she said.

“They’ve established what they will do about the leadership of that institution, about the name, but there’s a lot of detail that they need to get under and government will be working side by side with them.

“We’ll have essentially a green light red light on that (merger) by the end of the financial year.”