Rather than a set of teaching and learning relationships, universities have become a bunch of metrics to be gamed. Unwinding these systems will take effort
Universities are in crisis. Federal and state government inquiries point to serious problems with governance, financial transparency and managerial decision-making. The pressure on university leadership, particularly well-paid vice-chancellors, is mounting.
After decades of public shaming, some university executives are finally starting to suggest that their “social licence” might require them to earn a more average wage.
Hannah Forsyth is author of A History of the Modern Australian University (2014) and Virtue Capitalists: the Rise and Fall of the Professional Class in the Anglophone World (2023). She is a member of the Australian Historical Association