The University of Sydney’s Association of Professors has big hopes for its November 22-23 conference; “one outcome might be the formation of an Australia-wide association of professors that government could consult,” the programme proposes.

The conference, announced in April, is all about who should run universities; “students and their academic teachers form the core of every university, but corporatised university businesses run by managers now largely disregard this with detrimental effects on academic life and the ability to undertake high quality research and teaching. At the same time, Australia and other modern countries increasingly need universities run by academic criteria, yielding graduates and research outcomes for society.”

CMM looks forward to UniSydney Provost, Stephen Garton handling this when he opens the event on November 22.  He may well be glad the organisers have dropped one question which appeared in the original announcement of the conference. “How much management and how many administrators are necessary?” (CMM April 17).”