While university managements are boasting聽huge surpluses, they are refusing to make their聽largely casualised聽staff permanent and award them pay rises. Binoy Kampmark reports.
University funding
Neoliberal ideology has reduced tertiary education to a commodity. Students have become 鈥渃ustomers鈥 and academics and lecturers are now 鈥渟ervice providers鈥, writes聽Markela Panegyres.
The federal Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham will release a report on May 8 commissioned by the government that will allegedly indicate that universities receive adequate funding for most courses and that their revenues are growing faster than their costs.
This report will be used to justify a proposed $2.8 billion funding cut that will raise the costs of course fees and mean that students will need to repay their HECS debts sooner.