#tertiarysector — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #tertiarysector, aggregated by home.social.
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#Universtiy #Education #TertiarySector #Manageralism #NeoLiberalism #UniversityCouncils #StudentWelfare
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“ *Leaders at Australian universities have lost their moral compass* :Flinders University vice-chancellor Colin Stirling earned just shy of $1.5 million in 2024 (up from $1.3 million a year earlier), and has also pocketed over $700,000 since joining the board of IDP Education in 2018. Stirling, who runs a university ranked 374th in the world, earns about $200,000 more than Oxford vice-chancellor Irene Tracey, who doesn’t have a second job. Oxford is among the finest institutions in the world.
Then, in South Australia, there’s David Lloyd, who reaped an epic $3.1 million after his institution, the University of South Australia, merged with the University of Adelaide in 2025. It included a “merger-related termination payment” of $1.1 million. As one very senior member of the university sector told me: “It’s obscene”.
All of this, and more, is ticked off by feckless chancellors who seem incapable of reading the room. There have been four government inquiries into failings of university governance, and the only people who seem to think there is no problem are the chancellors themselves. Meanwhile, they sign off on self-serving deals for vice-chancellors that seem blind to plain old common sense and reputation-damaging public optics.
All this is even more appalling when viewed in the light of $160 million in underpayments to casual and contract staff across the sector since 2014, with some estimates placing that figure closer to $300 million. Meanwhile, universities keep slashing jobs despite their robust financial health: ANU shed around 1,000 jobs in 2025; Wollongong cut almost 300 positions while Dewar was running the shop; and at Flinders, Stirling has embarked on at least three job-cutting exercises since he became boss in 2015 — while his salary rises like an overexcited sponge cake.
Amid all of this, non-disclosure agreements have become the norm, meaning we will never know the true extent of the decision-making that is running the university sector into the ground.”
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The continuing saga of #University mismanagement now focuses on the #UniverstityOfWollongong with allegations of #cronyism and favoured #consultancies.
“The corruption watchdog has confirmed three main areas it will probe, including whether the university's chief governance officer and secretary, Alyssa White, or any other staff subverted recruitment processes for governance roles.
The commission will also examine whether, since 2024, Chancellor Michael Still, Ms White, or any other staff improperly awarded or influenced the awarding of work to a consultancy company, Aspirall Consulting International.” (Source: ABC News)
#Managerialism #NeoLiberalism #UniversityCouncils #Mismanagement #Corruption #TertiarySector #UoW #AusPol #GovernanceFails
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RE: https://aus.social/@johnquiggin/116678242298308581
“Let’s just agree that there is a governance crisis in Australian universities. Sure, not all of them, but too many not to be concerned. The evidence is there for us all to see: four government inquiries, inglorious headlines, resignations, leaks and ugly, unbecoming behaviour from people who really should know better.” (Source Crickey News)
#TertiarySector #ANU #Governance #Managerialism #UniversityCouncilsReforms #UniversityFunding
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Well, this looks promissing.
We now know that the 20% cut to HELP debt has been passed by Parliament.
I thought that the Universities Accord Report was consigned to a dusty shelf since #JasonClairMP wasn't telling us what he proposed to do about it. But behold! Katy is froeshadowing big chances in the pipeline...
"We said it would be the very first thing that we'd do once Parliament returned. And now we've delivered on that promise.
This is just the beginning. Through the Universities Accord, we're building something bigger - a tertiary system where your chances don't depend on your postcode, your parents or where you come from." (Katy Gallagher MP)
It better be a short pipeline though, we can't wait around too long to fix the mess our #TertiarySector is in. I can't help but feel optimistic about this.
#AusPol #KatyCallegher #UniversitiesAccord #Go8 #AusPol -
@smitjo
Thanks John. It was a good segment. While there was no new information in what was presented, it all needed repeating because only through repetition will people start to get it and perhaps call for urgent intervention to right the wrongs (this is of course not limited the the issues being faced by the #TertiarySector ). There are a lot of issues vying for public attention, but it shouldn’t be beyond our capacity to look at them all and demand actions from those with the authority to act, stirr them awake to their responsibilities beyond mere electoral prospecting.#TheSundayShot #Manegerialism #Education #Broken #AusPol #GraemeTurner #NeoLiberalism
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Yet more hapless victims of the mess successive administrators and 10 yrs of LNP cuts foisted on the #TertiarySector :
"ANU’s recent announcement to slash three full time positions at the ADB, and “disestablish” the Australian National Dictionary, another priceless project which has tracked the changes in Australian English from colonial times to the present, represent cultural vandalism on a breathtaking scale."
Still the Govt, looking at you Minister, is silent and looks upon the unfolding #debacle ... with arms crossed.
Read More:
https://insidestory.cmail20.com/t/r-l-tkllhidl-nuikumtyk-d/ -
@abcfeeds
That’s what happens when 1) govt undefund education and 2) you apply neoliberal economics to tertiary education institutions governance. Like, no one saw this coming… jezzzz -
@Michael_Collins
The corporatisation of the #tertiarySector is paying its dividends in the most egregious way. The neoliberal thinking that education can be run like a business and that markets would somehow nurture and develop educational institutions (in the economic sense) is shown, well and truly, to be a delusion.The sector needs to be fully funded from the public purse and left to its previous collegiate form of governance. Funding could be made available from the ‘rapping of the land’ by #ExtractiveIndustries and a sensible PRRT increase （together with cuts in tax examption allowances for #FossilFuel Exporters）。
Gumption is all that is required from our govt。
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Source: The Guardian
« Greens deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has lobbied against the bill. She said universities were “in strife” as a result of the “unabated” corporatisation of the sector.“Rampant casualisation, wage theft and enormous workloads were already crushing staff, and now hundreds will be without a job,” she said. “It should be VC salaries that are cut, not staff jobs.” »
Of all commentators, academics and universtiy management types, and public officials, Senator Faruqi tells it like it is on the ground for the tertiary sector.
How is a govt imposed cap on student numbers in any way an equitable and socially responsible way to deal with a tertiary sector financial crisis of their onw making? Let’s call it what it is, the neo-liberal insistance in corporatising the education sector is as useful as teats on a bull and a measure designed to deny higher education to those least able to afford it. Current education policies reflect the top percentile of our society’s wish to ‘Keep the peasants in their places lest they want what we have’ attitude.
I truly despair for the future of Australian society.
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Source: The Guardian
« Interim vice-chancellor of the UoW, Prof John Dewar, said the sector was facing a period of “unprecedented government reform. In our current financial circumstances, we must focus on our strengths in teaching and research, which means that we must consider discontinuing some areas of teaching where we have low student demand and areas of research activity,” he said. »What I read here is:
1) the university must focus on core business, teaching and research; and,
2) therefore, we’re cutting teaching and research.WTF? And this is a Professor? Which discipline I wonder? Bean counting?
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Entirely the result of forcing the tertiary sector to be run like a business by neoliberal-addled politicians which put bean counters in charge of institutions of research and learned readings.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-16/anu-rally-staff-forgo-pay-rise-vc-salary/104479394