The way they are now run does not serve Australia, new reseach suggest

“At the heart of the problem lies a failure to understand what creates resilience in enduring institutions, versus what makes resilience in revenue-seeking organisations,”  James Guthrie (Macquarie U) argues in a new MU Business School paper

The present university business model, “does not serve Australian democracy, economy, and prosperity” he argues.

He points to increases in academic salaries (223 per cent), professional staff salaries (242 per cent) and “general expenses “ (264 per cent) soaking-up the 230 per cent increase boom in international student revenue between 2008 and 2019.

And he examines universities debt, surpluses and dependence on international student revenues to suggest those at most risk.

The top ten universities had an average surplus of 12.01 per cent in 2019, while the bottom ten had 0.1 per cent.

And he warns  the “current social crisis” caused by staff redundancies is not due to the pandemic’s impact on international enrolments, pointing out universities did not add academics to teach increasing numbers of students, but used extra income to fund research.

In the short term-tern, he suggests universities should develop short-courses focused on domestic employment demand, which could be sold offshore as “premium digital offerings.”

But over time universities must get back to basics. “There is an urgent need to re-establish Australian universities as academic communities guided by research and education priorities that will stabilise and enhance the Australian body politic over the long term.”