Murdoch University is reportedly persisting with its massive lawsuit against academic Dr Gerd Schroeder-Turk, who has been accused of losing the University millions of dollars of lost fees from international students after criticising admission standards and raising ethical concerns on Four Corners’ Cash Cows report in May:
The university is suing associate professor Gerd Schroder-Turk for millions of dollars it alleges were lost in international student income after he publicly criticised the university’s recruitment of foreign students…
In May, he and two Murdoch colleagues spoke publicly of their concerns about academic integrity and the welfare of international students who were failing courses in higher than normal numbers…
[Murdoch] alleges his actions caused loss and damage due to a reduction in semester student enrolment of almost 15 per cent less than forecast, and a higher university immigration risk rating that would further deter international recruitment.
Josh Bornstein, Principal Lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, is scathing of Murdoch University:
“This is an unprecedented attack on a whistle-blower in this country. The University clearly intends to try and frighten my client and any other staff member wanting it speak up about maladministration”…
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) national president, Alison Barnes, has expressed similar sentiments:
“It is the antithesis of academic freedom for a university to sue one of its staff for speaking out,” Ms Barnes said. “The associate professor is the academic staff member elected by his peers. This attempt to silence the academic voice sends a chill through the entire higher education system, because academics must be involved in university governance at the highest levels.”
As has NTEU WA Division Secretary, Jonathan Hallett:
“Regrettably, Murdoch University is a University with a chequered past history of poor governance. In 2016, the WA Corruption and Crime Commission found the University’s former Vice Chancellor had engaged in serious misconduct”…
“Murdoch University has an extraordinary hypersensitivity to external scrutiny, transparency and any criticism. In recent years, it has spent enormous sums in seeking to use the legal system to suppress scrutiny, transparency and criticism”…
Last month, Australia’s Department of Home Affairs declared that Dr Schroeder-Turk “cannot be blamed” for the increase in Murdoch University’s immigration risk-rating, which was behind the loss of international students:
Murdoch is one of only two Australian universities with a level 3 risk rating. This means that to obtain visas to study at Murdoch, people from countries considered to represent even a moderate immigration risk must supply extra evidence of their financial capacity and language ability.
Murdoch claimed that this adverse rating had hampered its international student recruitment. It said that the intake this semester had been 14.8 per cent lower than forecast, with a likely revenue impact “in the order of millions of dollars”. The university earned A$74 million (£39 million) from international students last year, up from A$55 million in 2017.
However, Home Affairs risk ratings are based purely on immigration metrics such as rates of unsuccessful and fraudulent visa applications and students overstaying their visas. “Media coverage does not influence a provider’s immigration risk rating,” the department told Times Higher Education.
This case should be thrown out by the courts with Murdoch’s top brass falling on their swords.
