After 50 years as a university teacher, researcher and student, Raewyn Connell wrote a book, The Good University. Today, universities face a more toxic set of challenges than she has ever seen before.
Articles on university crisis
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While 18 universities suffered medium to high financial impacts, the incomes of eight increased or were stable. Overall revenue fell 5% – less than feared – but 35,000 staff lost their jobs.
Revenue fell by more than $2 billion in 2020 – less than feared – but universities are increasingly vulnerable to worsening conditions, with losses of international students accelerating.
Our current quarantine capacity would take six months to handle the return of 150,000 existing students, but 70,000 new students every six months would also be needed to halt the fall in enrolments.
Universities and the international education sector have developed a number of concrete plans to bring international students to Australia. But they have all been shelved without a clear explanation.
Out of the crises of the 1890s and 1940s Australia created quality, enduring legacies in post-school education. We now have a chance to upgrade these legacies to aid economic and social renewal.
Universities have financial resources — property, bequests and philanthropic funds, and access to lines of credit — they can access rather than forcing staff to sacrifice their jobs.
Top contributors
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Professor and Director, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University
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Professor Emerita (social science), University of Sydney
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Research Fellow, Centre for International Research on Education Systems, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University, Victoria University
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Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University
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Honorary Principal Fellow, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne
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Professor Emeritus and Former Deputy Vice Chancellor, The University of Melbourne
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Professor in Working Life, Discipline of Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney
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Lecturer, School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University
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Director, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne