Earlier this year, Dr Raffaele F. Ciriello, a Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney, claimed corporate elites have hijacked Australian universities.
Dr Ciriello’s claims followed a National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) investigation of 545 council positions at 37 universities, which revealed that members from the Big Four accounting firms and industry groups held up to half of the roles, with some university councils having more finance or mining executives than current academic practitioners.
“Australian public universities are no longer run for education”, Dr Ciriello said. “They have been taken over by a managerial elite that prioritises profits over academic integrity. Vice-chancellors earn more than the Prime Minister, with 16 of 41 making over $1 million annually”.
