Serious failures in governance at several Australian universities are harming both staff and students, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
Representatives from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) raised concerns during an Education and Employment Legislation Committee hearing, pointing to entrenched governance problems at their universities, some of which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fiona Probyn-Rapsey, a humanities professor at the University of Wollongong (UOW) and a former NTEU branch president, who recently lost her job in a restructuring, said frequent restructures were eroding the university’s functionality.
“In my experience, the periods of time spent dealing with restructures outweigh the time spent outside of them. They are destructive,” she said.
“They impact on student satisfaction. They disrupt research, and perhaps most egregiously, their frequency is often justified by management as necessary to undo the disasters of the previous restructuring.
UOW’s Financial Trouble
The UOW is currently in financial trouble due to a significant drop in international student enrollment, which the university attributed to the student cap introduced by the Labor government in 2024.
This prompted the UOW to carry out a number of measures to reduce costs, including consulting with staff about “potential workplace change.”
Alleged Conflict of Interest
She also alleged that there was a conflict of interest in UOW’s top management.Shortly after Dewar’s appointment in June 2024, KordaMentha was awarded a lucrative contract to conduct a review of the university’s operations.
While Dewar told staff he was on unpaid leave from the firm, documents secured under a Freedom of Information application revealed that he was working a nine-day fortnight at the UOW, with ongoing business activities at KordaMentha.
“Management has gone on to confirm that there is a conflict of interest for John Deere to have been both a business partner at KordaMentha and also overseeing the projects … that [the] UOW was paying the company to do,” she said.
In addition, Probyn-Rapsey pointed out that the UOW had failed to address the issue of wage theft despite being aware of it.
She said KPMG’s audits of the UOW’s casual pay systems had identified the problem, but the university did not fix it.
“In 2023, the UOW admitted to underpayments of up to $8 million (US$4.8 million), going back to 2016,” Probyn-Rapsey said.
Restructuring’s Outcome Will Be A Platform for Growth: UOW
A UOW spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the Australian university sector currently faced “unprecedented disruption and financial impacts” partly due to changes to the Australian government’s migration policy.“Consequently, we must address our escalating cost base and reduce our recurrent expenditure,” the spokesperson said.
“While there is a strong financial imperative to the transformation we are undertaking, the outcome will be a platform for driving future growth and impact, enabled by investment in digital systems and technology.”
The spokesperson also stated that the university’s priority was to strengthen its foundations and achieve sustainability while remaining competitive and innovative.
“To do this, we must continue to make tough choices now to set the University up for a brighter future,” the spokesperson said.
“The University recently released its UOW Operations Draft Change Proposal, and is undertaking a genuine and constructive consultation process with staff.”
Regarding the conflict of interest allegation, the UOW said Dewar had declared his association with KordaMentha upon appointment according to the university’s conflict of interest policy.
Furthermore, the university said Dewar had taken unpaid leave from KordaMentha for the duration of his appointment at the UOW.
“Professor Dewar was employed exclusively by UOW during the term as Interim Vice Chancellor,” the spokesperson said.
“He did not undertake any paid work for KordaMentha during that period.”
Federation University’s Alleged Culture of Fear
At Federation University, senior lecturer and NTEU branch president Mathew Abbott alleged a “culture of fear and uncertainty” among staff.He said the university has faced severe challenges since the beginning of the COVID-19 period, with considerable drops in student numbers, leading to large budget deficits.
“Constant restructuring and cuts that often appear to be irrational, including mass redundancies almost every year since 2020, both the closure and the opening of new campuses, and despite the university’s financial problems, huge increases in university revenue spent on consultancies,” he said.
This forced the university to implement a number of measures, including voluntary redundancies.
Amid the changes, the senior lecturer said staff members who asked questions or raised concerns about the management’s decisions and behaviour were met with hostility.
Abbott also alleged that he was a victim of threat and intimidation attempts for speaking out at meetings with the university’s governance council.
“I have been subject to vilification, attempts at silencing, and what appeared to me to be threatening behaviour from the chair of the council–our university’s Chancellor Terry Moran,” he said.
“So [the] Federation University has become a very difficult place to work and to teach with staff now operating in the context of a culture of fear and uncertainty, and this has a direct negative impact on the quality of the work we do for our students.”
A Federation University spokesperson told The Epoch Times that it was aware of Abbott’s allegations.
“These are serious allegations, and we have formal processes in place to investigate such matters,” the spokesperson said.
Tertiary Education Regulator’s Response
Mary Russell, CEO of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), said the agency had identified increasing concerns in governance issues for some time.“We have identified a number of concerning trends that affect not just one or two individual providers, but our concerns across the sector,” she said.
Education Department Says New Measures Have Been Implemented
Meanwhile, Ben Rimmer, a deputy secretary at the Education Department, said reforms were underway following the release of the Australian Universities Accord report in 2024. These include a new Expert Council on University Governance.“The expert council will report to ministers from all Australian governments,” he said.
“Universities will be required to adopt new national standards of governments, and education ministers have committed that failure to follow the nationally agreed approach will be a serious matter requiring explanation, and that is likely to trigger further engagement by governments and regulators.”
Rimmer further said that the expert council and the Education Department would engage closely with states and territories and work with them through the education ministers’ meeting process over the coming months.
