A petition calls for changes to the university’s Act to “democratise and improve representation, transparency and accountability” of its council

Council has “unprecedented autonomy to make financial, staffing and coursework decisions, and provides for little or no external accountability or transparency to staff, students or the wider community,” it states. The petition laments staff and students have only three of 22 council seats and are “effectively prevented from communicating with those who elected them.” This is due to Council’s standing orders and procedures.

The petition calls for more staff and student representatives and “diversifying external membership of UOW Council beyond the current focus on business and finance.

Council attracted staff union ire earlier this year when it approved outgoing VC Paul Welling’s proposal to change the membership of the university senate, which oversights academic matters, (CMM April 15).