05 Nov 2025

Setting The Agenda for Change in Higher Education: Lessons from Australia

The Australian national flag flying beside the Aboriginal Flag of Australia

A discussion paper by Mark Pendleton (UK-elected HE)

Preface

UCU Commons has long argued for more deliberation and discussion in our union, rather than simple polarised debate. In that spirit, this year we’ll be increasing our submission to UCU’s structures of papers that seek to open up discussion, rather than predetermine outcomes. This builds on initiatives in previous years, like our member Bijan Parsia’s industrial strategy paper, which was submitted to successive HECs last year but routinely deprioritised for discussion by former HEC chair Maria Chondrogianni. But we’re not deterred, so to kick off our programme of discussion papers this year, for the next HEC we have submitted one by UK-elected HEC member Mark Pendleton that seeks to learn lessons from our counterparts in Australia, the NTEU, who are beginning to change the narrative about the future of higher education. We firmly believe we can do the same in the UK.

UK and Australian higher education systems have longstanding links. In recent years, both countries also elected Labo/ur governments after years of decline in public services under Conservative rule, only to see little material change post-election.

Our systems are also deeply connected on a human level. Approximately 1,425 members of British academic staff were from Australasia in 2022-23 – just outside the top ten countries of origin for migrant staff.[1] At the leadership level, a rotating door of senior staff sees approximately 35% of current Vice-chancellors in Australia being British, and recent appointments at several major British universities cutting their teeth in the Australian system (eg. Manchester, Birkbeck). Highly paid consultancy firms are driving the corporatization and downsizing of institutions and removal of staff input into governance and administration of our universities across both systems.[2]

We as trade unionists should also be considering these longstanding connections. Our Australian counterpart, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has recently forced higher education onto the public agenda and driven a conversation about the need for change. The industrial relations context between the two systems may differ, but there are nonetheless some lessons for us in UCU. This discussion paper introduces several of these to the Higher Education Committee as we continue to discuss how best to address the crises in our sector.

1. Wage Theft and Anti-casualisation

The NTEU calculates that some two-thirds of staff working in Australian HE are employed on casualised or fixed-term contracts.[3] As we know, insecure contracts open the door to a range of abuses and injustices.

For several years, the NTEU has focused on the forms of underpayment of those on casualised contracts, including “being paid for fewer hours than the work takes, paying piece rates for marking or lecture preparation instead of the actual time worked, and sham contracting.”[4] These problems are all familiar to casualised staff in UKHE.

The union pursued a strategy of direct action, media campaigning and litigation to secure several wins, including orders against Melbourne University, Monash University and the University of Wollongong. A total of $258 million has been confirmed in underpayments and the union has secured a further $159 million being set aside by universities to address this problem.[5] Numerous complaints have been upheld, with the sector’s leadership being described as responsible for “entrenched non-compliance” with employment law and local agreements.[6] The scale of wage theft has also caught the eye of governments, with federal Education minister Jason Clare ultimately adopting the language of “wage theft” after landmark evidence at a Senate inquiry further supported the systematic nature of the problem.[7]

2. Governance

For the NTEU, at the heart of this problem is a crisis of university governance. As in British universities, staff and student representation has declined as boards are increasingly filled with corporate stooges. The union led on a series of reports connecting casualisation, wage theft and excessive executive salaries to university governance. These can be found, along with campaign resources, at betterunis.nteu.au.

This campaign culminated earlier this year with the launch of a Senate Inquiry into the quality of governance at Australian higher education providers.[8] The inquiry was tasked with exploring:

“The composition of providers’ governing bodies and the transparency, accountability and effectiveness of their functions and processes, including in relation to expenditure, risk management and conflicts of interest;
“The standard and accuracy of providers’ financial reporting, and the effectiveness of financial safeguards and controls;
“Providers’ compliance with legislative requirements, including compliance with workplace laws and regulations;
“The impact of providers’ employment practices, executive remuneration, and the use of external consultants, on staff, students and the quality of higher education offered; and
“Any related matters.”

The inquiry’s interim report, released in September, identified twelve key recommendations.[9] These include increased regulation of university governance structures, minimum expectations of staff and student representation on governing bodies, and a framework for instituting caps on vice-chancellor and senior executive salaries. The report was scathing about university governance, describing university leaders as overpaid, underskilled and out of touch, describing the basic structure of university councils as “profoundly undemocratic”, and noting the urgent need for “a shift back towards more staff and students on governing bodies so decisions are made by the university communities, not just executives and corporate appointees.”[10]

The final report is due in December, but the inquiry is already causing shockwaves in Australian higher education and should drive significant reform.

3. Local Mismanagement

Governance concerns have also been central to local campaigns at various HE institutions. Perhaps the most significant wins have taken place at the Australian National University, Australia’s flagship institution. Former staff representative on ANU’s Council, Dr Liz Allen, a demographer and NTEU member, drew significant media attention for publicly accusing senior leaders at ANU of bullying, including at the aforementioned Senate Inquiry. A report on her testimony documents a campaign of harassment that ultimately led to her resignation [warning: Dr Allen discusses suicidal tendencies as a result of her experiences] and the resignation of her successor.[11] This led to calls from independent senators and others for the chancellor and vice-chancellor to resign.

ANU has been in a crisis for some time, with successive waves of job cuts,[12] endemic cultures of bullying, gender-based harassment and excessive workloads,[13] and the proposed ‘disestablishment’ of several key research and teaching centres, all caused by mismanagement and the growing disconnect between management and the material realities of work on the ground. The ANU vice-chancellor, already on a salary of over $1.46 million, retained a separate job working for Intel, the Chancellor used ANU funds to pay her business partner as a consultant and proposed job cuts were justified by a manufactured deficit that was misjudged by $60 million.

The NTEU worked in conjunction with staff groups and allies to build a campaign to focus on the rot at the top. Initiatives included the establishment of a local governance group that gathered evidence and reported on attitudes of staff, students and other members of the ANU community.[14] The report found that over 96% believed that current ANU governance is not fit for purpose and should be reformed, and over 93% were dissatisfied with transparency and accountability frameworks.

Earlier, a large-scale campaign saw an overwhelming vote of no confidence in ANU leadership, which saw over 95% voting ‘no’ on a turnout of over 800 staff.[15] Students at the music school (which was scheduled to be closed) held all night jamming sessions protesting at the proposed cuts.[16] And five of six deans ultimately reported not having confidence in the vice-chancellor’s leadership and threatening to quit if she did not depart.

The vice-chancellor ultimately resigned in September, although the Chancellor remains currently in post.[17] The programme of proposed job cuts was also paused.

4. Health & Safety Law and Workplace Stress/Psychosocial Harm

Finally, the NTEU has also had several major successes using health and safety legislation in opposition to programmes of job cuts. While specific legal frameworks differ, the broad principles of health and safety legislation in Australia and the UK are comparable, with similar protections and provisions for intervention to prevent harm.

At ANU, staff at risk of redundancy were issued with a ‘stop work’ order by local H&S representatives in September due to “serious and ongoing harm to health and safety” as a result of the restructure process. This order advised them to “remove themselves from the hazardous work environment,” an order approximately 30 staff have followed.[18]

At the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the New South Wales health and safety regulator ordered a halt to a programme of proposed job cuts affecting 800+ staff, due to a “serious and imminent risk of psychological harm,” after management unilaterally stopped accepting students on over 100 programmes, precipitating a ‘need’ to reduce jobs.[19]

5. Concluding comments

As trade unionists committed to internationalism, we in UCU regularly pass motions on international solidarity, as we should. But we less regularly look to our international counterparts to learn from the skills, tactics and campaigns that are driving change.

The lessons from Australia are clear – if we are to achieve systematic change we need to develop holistic campaigns that draw positive public and media attention, force politicians to consider regulatory and legislative change, and that unite staff, students and our wider communities. That will of course require strategic use of industrial action. But successful campaigns must also confront head on entrenched attitudes about higher education through a strategy that builds from the ground up, through deep engagement with staff, students and wider communities. We must consider strategic litigation to advance protections under existing law where we can and make better use of our members’ expertise. The path to restoring higher education as a public good is a long one, but it is possible to turn the corner, as appears to be beginning to happen in Australia.

[1] https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/what-we-do/policy-and-research/publications/features/uk-higher-education-data-international/international-staff-data

[2] https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/education/2025/06/14/mind-boggling-stupidity-the-consultancy-that-captured-universities

[3]https://nteuau.sharepoint.com/sites/Publicdocuments/Public/Forms/Better%20List.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FPublicdocuments%2FPublic%2FCampaigns%2FNational%2FNTEU%20%2D%20Wage%20Theft%20Report%202%2E0%2Epdf&parent=%2Fsites%2FPublicdocuments%2FPublic%2FCampaigns%2FNational&p=true&ga=1

[4] Ibid.

[5]www.nteu.au/News_Articles/Media_Releases/Union_scores_major_win_in_fight_against_university_wage_theft.aspx

[6] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/05/australian-universities-accused-of-entrenched-non-compliance-with-workplace-law-over-staff-underpayment

[7] https://ministers.education.gov.au/clare/transcript-afr-higher-education-summit-sydney

[8]https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/UniversityGovernance48

[9]https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/UniversityGovernance48/Interim_report

[10] https://www.themandarin.com.au/299962-university-governance-blasted-in-interim-senate-report/

[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra3kOSrrrQI

[12] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-31/anu-job-cuts-academic-portfolio-renew-save-millions/105596738