Australian Public Universities and the Destruction of the Academic Community*

ABSTRACT

The Coalition Federal Government led by Scott Morrison has raised tuition fees for humanities and social sciences (Campbell and Johnson 2020) and changed the law three times to ensure that the financial support called "Job Keeper" would not be given to public universities, while at the same time millions of dollars have been given to private universities (Price 2021). [...]these issues of public concern have not been reported nearly as much as they should have been. According to university statutes the key function of the university is 'the promotion, advancement and transmission of knowledge and research' (Sydney University Act 1989). There is a deep communal logic that is inherent to the gift economy, which is in fact the opposition to the logic of the market economy 'It is the cardinal difference between gift and commodity exchange that a gift establishes a feeling-bond between two people, while the sale of a commodity leaves no necessary connection' (Hyde 2007 58).