We are regularly updating our library and are curating resources that are significant and relevant. The items are deliberately not posted in chronological order as they wont get outdated due to their significance. Take time and go through them all as this will help you to understand the university crisis. The resources are listed under “Media coverage” and  “Academic texts” sections. New items are posted on top of the sections.

Last update: 27.10. 2026 under “Academic Texts/Governance” (scroll down).

Articles published by APU members Adam Lucas and James Guthrie

Michael West Media

University wage theft. Australian academics owed hundreds of millions

Australian unis rob staff, splash on Big 4 consultants, hoard billions

University governance flaws exposed. End of consultants’ bonanza?

The Wright stuff. Uni of Wollongong CFO hands keys to KordaMentha

Uni of Wollongong and KordaMentha: The tangled dollar-webs they weaved

Wollongong University Inc. Profit over jobs as consultants prosper

Uni finances. ANU and the commercialisation of higher ed

 

Pearls and Irritations

COVID cuts highlight intellectual bankruptcy of Coalition higher education policies. Part 1

Coalition policies and corporatization of universities are premised on shifting costs to students and staff. Part 2

The authoritarian academy: corporate governance of Australia’s universities exploits staff and students and degrades academic standards. Part 3

Universities’ wage theft as a business model must be stamped out

Education left behind in the corporatisation of our universities

If I were the Minister responsible for Higher Education in the next government these would be my priorities

James Guthrie and Adam Lucas: It’s time for a Royal Commission into the governance of Australia’s public universities

Global university rankings: what function do they serve?

The Australian Universities Accord Interim Report: the devil is in the detail

Show us the money! APU’s Australian Universities Accord response (Part 1)

Feeding the beast: The use of private consultants by public universities and its implications for tertiary education

Reforming university governance: Restoring accountability and the public mission

Reining in the consultant culture in Australia’s public universities

Reining in vice-chancellor and executive pay: Restoring governance in public universities

Job-ready Graduates has failed – a first step to fixing it is on the table

 

The Conversation

More than 70% of academics at some universities are casuals. They’re losing work and are cut out of JobKeeper

Governing universities: tertiary experience no longer required

 

Australian Outlook

International Students Hit All-Time High During Australia’s Worst Housing Crisis in Decades

The Economic Role of International Students in Australia’s Higher Education System

 

The Point

Australia’s uni regulator is broken. Here’s how to fix it

Media coverage

Failures of the Universities

• AI is devastating higher education, but the system was already broken (The Conversation, Jeff Sparrow, October 23, 2026)

• ‘Appallingly unethical’: why Australian universities are at breaking point (The Guardian, Caitlin Cassidy, April 11th, 2023)
  

• The billion-dollar industry helping students at major Australian universities cheat online assessments (The ABC, Mario Christodoulou, July 30th, 2022)

• If I were the Minister responsible for Higher Education in the next government these would be my priorities (Pearls and Irritations Adam Lucas and Alessandro Pelizzon May 3rd, 2022)

• Priorities for reforming HE, With the election around the corner, the members and supporters of Public Universities Australia declare what should happen to the Australian public higher education system (Campus Morning Mail, James Guthrie, April 25th, 2022)

• Can Australian universities come back from the dead? (Pearls and irritations, Richard Hil, Jan 22nd, 2022)

• Remaking universities: notes from the sidelines of catastrophe (The Conversation, Raewyn Connell, Feb 4th, 2022)

• Amid global crisis, how can universities be regenerated to serve the common good? (The Conversation, Cristen Lyons, Fern Thompset, Richard Hil, Dec 17th, 2021)

• ‘Slap to the face’: International student outraged at soaring Melbourne university fees (SBS, Rayane Tamer, Dec 12th)

• Unis offered as few as 1 in 100 casuals permanent status in 2021. Why aren’t conversion rules working for these staff? (The Conversation, Elizabeth Bare, Janet Beard, Teresa Tjia Dec 10th, 2021)

• Education left behind in the corporatisation of our universities (Pearls and Irritations, APU, Adam Lucas, Allesandro Pelizzon Dec 9th, 2021)

• Low bar for ‘genuine consultation’ set by UWA case feeds into crisis of legitimacy for Australian institutions (The Conversation, Harper Tauel, Jeannette Taylor, Dec 1st, 2021)

• ‘Line in the sand’: Sydney University academics’ fury over dumped departments (Sydney Morning Herald, Jordana Baker, Nov 27th, 2021)

• Fed Uni offers all staff redundancies, replaces Deans with CEOs (Honi Soit, Max Shanahan, Nov 24th, 2021)

• UWA to scrap sociology, elite professors after win at Fair Work Commission (WA Today, Aja Styles, Nov 19th, 2021)

• The managed destruction of Australia’s oldest faculty of Arts (Overland, Nick Riemer, Nov 17th, 2021)

• Australia’s universities converting as little as 1% of casual staff to permanent despite labour law change (Guardian, Peter Hannam, Nov 18th, 2021)

• When university missions and visions are reduced to numbers (Campus Morning Mail, Garry Carnegie, Oct 31st, 2021)

• The seven gaps between uni managements’ rhetoric and financial reality (Campus Morning Mail, James Guthrie, Nov 7th, 2021)

• Huge salaries, but then crying poor. Are universities their own worst enemies? (Crikey, Kishor Napier-Raman and Georgia Wilkins Oct 28, 2021)
• Australia’s tertiary education sector shed 40,000 jobs in the last year (Honi Soit, Deaundre Espejo, Sept 14th, 2021)

• University of Newcastle staff, students describe ‘distressing’ mental health crisis (ABC, Newcastle, Madeline Lewis, Jul 22nd, 2021)

• Our uni teachers were already among the world’s most stressed. COVID and student feedback have just made things worse (The Conversation, Megan Lee et all., July 19th, 2021)

• NSW universities spent almost $300 million sacking staff in 2020, audit finds (Honi Soit, Claire Ollivain, June 25th, 2021)

• ‘Netflix’ degrees and robot teachers: How big tech could shape WA universities (WAtoday, Aja Styles, June 18th, 2021)

• ‘It’s a dying uni’: Two WA universities, one student movement, differing results (WAtoday, Aja Styles, June 18th, 2021)

• Vice-chancellors take a pay cut but three remain in $1m club (The Age, Adam Carey, June 9th, 2021)

• Vice-chancellors’ pay cut as NSW universities feel heat over salaries (The Sydney Morning Herald, Jordan Baker, June 10th, 2021)

• More than 70% of academics at some universities are casuals. They’re losing work and are cut out of JobKeeper (The Conversation, Jess Harris,Kathleen Smithers, Nerida Spina, May 15th, 2020)

• Is the end nigh for the Australian public university? (Pearls and Provocations, Allan Patience, May 17th, 2021)

• Australian universities are dying and no one is coming to save them (Sydney Morning Herald, Jenna Price, May 18th, 2021)

• Whatever strategy Universities Australia is pursuing, it’s not working (The Crikey, David Latham, May 13th, 2021)

• Australian universities brace for ‘ugly’ 2022 after budget cuts (The Guardian, Naaman Zhou, May 13th, 2021)

• The crisis universities should have seen coming (7am podcast, Schwartz Media, May 26th, 2020)

• ‘I feel like a commodity’: COVID hit only beginning for Australia’s unis (The Sydney Morning Herald, Royce Millar, Farrah Tomazin and Adam Carey, April 3rd, 2021)

• Melbourne Uni cuts threaten to make us the ‘bogans of the Pacific’ (The Age, Adam Carey, Farrah Tomazin and Royce Millar, April 3rd, 2021)

• ANU plans to end neuroscience research as it struggles to save $103 million annually (The ABC, Lisa Glenday, March 19th, 2021)

• Australian universities flag more budget cuts, job losses in the next year (The Guardian, Naaman Zhou, Feb 26, 2021)

• ‘Instagram-worthy’: Covid-19 predicted to change design of Australian universities (The Guardian, Naaman Zhou, Feb 11th, 2021)

• ‘Failure of leadership’: NSW MPs urge review of $1 million vice-chancellor pay (The Sydney Morning Herald, Natassia Chrysanthos, Jan 25th, 2021)

• Almost 10% of Australian university jobs slashed during Covid, with casuals hit hardest (The Guardian, Naaman Zhou, Oct 7th, 2020)

• Last Chance for Universities? (Arena Quarterly no.2, Simon Cooper, Jul 2020)

• Four private Australian universities allowed to access jobkeeper payments (The Guardian, Naaman Zhou, May 25th, 2020)

• Australian government urged to try and recover student loans from the dead (The Guardian, Paul Karp, Jan 21st, 2020)

• Overseas students dump Australia for Canada and COVID-ravaged Britain (The Sydney Morning Herald, Anna Patty, Jan 17th, 2021)

• 2021 is the year Australia’s international student crisis really bites (The Conversation, Peter Hurley, Jan 14th, 2021)

• IDP Education CEO Andrew Barkla tops ACSI’s list of highest-paid bosses in 2019 (ABC News, Nassim Khadem, Aug 7th, 2020)

• Vital Signs: this university funding crisis was always coming – COVID-19 just accelerated it (The Conversation, Richard Holden, Aug 14th, 2020)

• University underpayment so rampant tutors ‘instructed to do a poor job’ to avoid unpaid hours, former staff say (ABC News, Conor Duffy, Aug 18th, 2020)

• Where have all the surpluses gone? (Overland, Lynda Ng, Sept 1st, 2020)

• ‘Humanities graduates are just as employable’: do the sciences really lead to more jobs? (The Guardian, Chris Stokel- Walker, Sept 10th, 2020)

• University rankings don’t measure what matters (The Conversation, Sioux McKenna, Sept 15th, 2020)

• Australian universities cower as disaster looms A catastrophe is about to hit our ideas sector, but the fightback has been pathetic. (The Sydney Morning Herald, Jenna Price, Sept 22th, 2020)

• The attack on the university is political (Overland, Anwen Crawford, Sept 22nd, 2020)
• Behind voluntary redundancy in universities: The stories behind the story (NTEU, Ian Dobson, Sept 2nd, 2020)
• As universities face losing 1 in 10 staff, COVID-driven cuts create 4 key risks (The Conversation, Ian Marshman, Elizabeth Bare, Janet Beard, Sept 28th, 2020)
• Wayne’s world: How universities are crushing academics – ABC Religion & Ethics (N.N. Trakakis, Sept 29th, 2020)
• How Neoliberal Reforms Led to the Student Covid Crisis (Tribune, Daniella Adeluwoye, Oct 1st, 2020)
• “Busted Uni policy must be re-set.” (Coffs Coast Outlook, Editor, Oct 28th, 2020)
• University vice-chancellor salaries are ‘ridiculous’ (Macquarie University, Tom Smith, Nov 16th, 2020)
• Up to 50% of university students unhappy with online learning, regulator finds (The Guardian, Naaman Zhou, Dec 2nd, 2020)
• If Australian Universities Are Going To Survive, They Can’t Just Produce “Job-Ready” Graduates (Jacobin, Ben Eltham, Dec 2020)
• Do humanities graduates have the same job prospects as science graduates? (RMIT ABC Fact Check, Dec 19th, 2020)

 

University Governance

• James Guthrie and Adam Lucas: It’s time for a Royal Commission into the governance of Australia’s public universities (Pears and Irritations, James Guthrie and Adam Lucas on behalf of PUA, August 3rd, 2022)

  Why big university surpluses underscore the need to reform how they are funded and governed (The Conversation, Daniel Cahill, June 2nd)

  Rhetoric and reality of public sector university finances decisions made by a few elite people behind closed doors significantly impact staff and students (Campus Morning Mail, James Guthrie, April 28th, 2022)

• Elect the vice-chancellor! (Inside Story, David Peetz, Oct 15th, 2020)
• Governing universities: tertiary experience no longer required (The Conversation, Adam Lucas et all. Sept 4th, 2020)
• How Australian vice-chancellors’ pay came to average $1 million and why it’s a problem (The Conversaton, Julie Rowlands and Rebecca Boden, Dec 2nd, 2020)
• When the rivers run dry (The Monthly, Margaret Simons, Nov 2020)
• An open letter to Australia’s Education Minister Dan Tehan — signed by 73 senior professors (The Conversation, Evans et all, Jul 21st, 2020)

• ‘Universities are not corporations’: 600 Australian academics call for change to uni governance structures (The Conversation, Pelizzon, Young, Joannes-Boyau, Jul 29th, 2020)

• How (Not) to Corporatize a University Corporate culture is incompatible with shared governance (aaup, Dane Kennedy, Fall 2020)

• Punitive fees and job cuts: Australian universities have been transformed into giant corporations (The Guardian, Jeff Sparrow, Aug 17th, 2020)

• Universities have gone from being a place of privilege to a competitive market. What will they be after coronavirus? (The Conversation, Pietsch, Groucher, Waghorne, May 6th, 2020)‘

• Vice-chancellors’ salaries are just a symptom of what’s wrong with universities (The Conversation, Lyons, Hill, Feb 5th, 2018)

• Australia’s universities: bosses reel in $1m-plus salaries, $1bn profit on back of staff underpayment (Michael West Media, Sainsbury, Aug 25th, 2020)

 

University Culture

Academic texts

Governance

• Blanca Missé, James Martel For Democratic Governance of Universities: The Case for Administrative Abolition
• Academics for Public Universities IT’S TIME: THE RE-FORM OF AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES (April 2022) Special issue of Social Alternatives Journal
• Gerd E. Schröder-Turk A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Australian Universities’ Review, April 20th, 2021

• James Guthrie and Tom Smith ‘The three threats to Australian universities and the ten most exposed’ Campus Morning Mail, Feb 4th 2021

• Terence Kealey ‘Only academics can run universities effectively’ Times Higher education, Jan 21st  2021
• Morrish, Liz, et al. ‘Academic identities in the managed university: Neoliberalism and resistance at Newcastle University, UK’. Australian Universities Review 59/2 (2017), 23–35. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1157050.pdf
• Sharron Shatil, ‘Managerialism – A Social Order on the Rise’ Critical Sociology, Vol 46, Issue 7-8, 2020
• Michael Shattock, ‘University governance in flux. The impact of external and internal pressures on the distribution of authority within British universities: a synoptic view‘ Center for Global Higher Education working paper, 2017.
• Richard Hill, Whackademia: An Insider’s Account of the Troubled University, New South, 2012
• Karran, T., Mallinson, L. Academic Freedom and World-Class Universities: A Virtuous Circle?. High Educ Policy 32, 397–417 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-018-0087-7

 

Culture

• Verhoeven, D., & Eltham, B. (2023) “Nousferatu”: Are corporate consultants extracting the lifeblood from universities?
• Zielke, J., Thompson, M., Hepburn, P. (2021) On the (im)possibilities of being a good enough researcher at a neoliberal university
• Nentwich, M. (2001) (Re-)De-Commodification in Academic Knowledge Distribution?
• Wals, A. (2018) Publish AND perish: how the commodification of scientific publishing is undermining both science and the public good

• Puehringer, Rath, Griesebner (2021) The political economy of academic publishing: On the commodification of a public good

  Barclay, K. (2021) Academic Emotions Feeling the Institution, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

• Accominotti, Fabien and Tadmon, Daniel (2020) How the reification of merit breeds inequality: theory and experimental evidence. Working Paper (42). International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
• Special issue of Australian Universities’ Review: Academic freedom’s precarious future, Kristen Lyons guest ed., NTEU, 20 Apr, 2021
• Peter Fleming, Dark Academia How Universities Die, Pluto Press, 2021

• Raewyn Connell, The Good University What universities actually do and why it’s time for radical change Monash University Press, 2019

• Mats Alvesson, The Triumph of Emptiness. Consumption, Higher Education, and Work Organization Oxford University Press UK, 2014
• Simon Marginson ‘Public/private in higher education: a synthesis of economic and political approaches’ Studies in Higher Education, 2016
• Morrish Liz. ‘Neoliberalism in the Academy: Have You Drunk the Kool-Aid?’. In: Mooney A., Sifaki E. (eds) The Language of Money and Debt. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. http://doi-org-443.webvpn.fjmu.edu.cn/10.1007/978-3-319-57568-1_6

• Gill, Rosalind. ‘Breaking the silence: The hidden injuries of neo-liberal academia.’ In Flood, R. & Gill, R. (Eds.) Secrecy and Silence in the Research Process: Feminist Reflections. London: Routledge, 2009, 39–55.  https://doi.org/10.1515/fs-2016-0105

• Martin Parker, ‘The Critical Business School and the University: A Case Study of Resistance and Co-optation’ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0896920520950387

 

Free Speech

• Bonnell, Andrew.  ‘The Ramsay Centre and “Western Civilisation”: An attempt at historical perspective’. Australian Universities Review 61/2 (2019), 65–72. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1228249.pdf.

• Dolhinow, Rebecca. ‘Activism on the Corporate Campus: It Just Doesn’t Have That You Know What Anymore’.  Australian Universities’ Review, 59/2 (2017), 14–22. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1157054.pdf

• Chris Lorenz, ‘If You’re So Smart, Why Are You under Surveillance? Universities, Neoliberalism, and New Public Management’ Vol. 38, No. 3 (Spring 2012), pp. 599-629 (31 pages) Published By: The University of Chicago Press

 

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