Margaret Sims has a new book on HE in Australia, Bullshit Towers: neoliberalism and managerialism in universities, (Peter Lang)

“University staff are de-professionalised, disrespected and disregarded and managers increasingly define themselves as ‘the university’,” she argues.

In 2016 Professor Sims, then at UNE, was a member of council but the university argued she could not receive complete meetings papers because as president of the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union she had “a material interest” in some matters. A dispute over this ended up in the Federal Court, but was withdrawn by UNE, with management, union and Professor Sims agreeing that council members should declare any material interest but there was no inherent conflict in a council member being an NTEU officer, (CMM June 24 October 4 2016.

Alessandro Pelizzon, Renaud Joannes-Boyau and Martin Young (Southern Cross U) are also unhappy with the way universities are managed

They have  written  an open letter state and federal ministers, now circulating on-line, about the failures of university councils, and the executives they appoint.

“Most university councils have ceased to be transparently accountable to either the universities on whose behalf they are legally intended to act or to the larger political community. Furthermore, the current executive cadre appointed by these increasingly autocratic councils, far from displaying the degree of excellence of the past, is instead often comprised of astonishingly well-paid, often institution-hopping, administrators without any long-term institutional knowledge and memory,” they and signatories from 24 other universities, state.

They propose councils “are made accountable to both the university on whose behalf they operate and the larger body politics” and “all senior and middle-executive roles are selected through internal processes rather than through a commercial corporate recruitment strategy.”