Outgoing president of the National Tertiary Education Union, Jeannie Rea slammed university councils in a recent address. “Our university councils/senates are dominated by business and industry advocates with little appreciation that a university is not just another internationally focussed corporation. With continual efforts to remove staff and students from councils, closed meetings and minutes redacted to nothingness, these councils act largely in secret relying upon the reports of the CEO and CFO,” Ms Rea said, in what was her farewell address to a union conference on the future of the higher education system.

“They do not lobby for increased government funding despite Australia’s public investment in higher education being the second lowest in the OECD. Instead they back further fee deregulation. And they accumulate surpluses to borrow to build more, while students wander the corridors (and the internet) trying to find a staff member to answer their questions,” she said.