Australian Public Universities: A crisis of governance*

In dialogue with other articles within this special issue, in this article we argue that the financial crisis triggered by the onset of COVID-19 is revealing a failed governance structure within Australian public universities that has ultimately enabled the conditions that led to the crisis currently before us. We suggest that the impact of COVID-19 has laid bare a series of problems that were in the process of unfolding years before the pandemic hit. Finally, we will examine this failure of leadership through the lens of the statutory nature and governance structures of Australian public universities, cast against the current rhetoric that metaphorically equates universities with commercial corporations, to determine the extent to which such a metaphor is accurate, and ultimately (we contend) detrimental to an effective and efficient university sector.

A Brief History of Australian Universities*

This article aims, firstly, to provide a sketch of the humanistic tradition of education from Classical Antiquity through to the present, as the cultivation of the whole person as an individual and as a responsible citizen, which arguably still underpins European and other western education systems but which has been eroded in Australia. Secondly, this article aims to provide an outline history of universities in Australia from 1850 to the present, highlighting by way of examples consistent patterns and failures, and the sources of challenges now facing the sector. Thirdly, this article provides a brief summary of those challenges, some of which have been exacerbated but not caused by COVID-19.