Bullying and harassment spike at Uni of Adelaide as Uni SA merger fears revealed in Freedom of Information laws report

Bullying and harassment reports have spiked at the Uni of Adelaide, alongside fears a merger with Uni SA will create a “meat grinder producing poorly educated students”.

Bullying and harassment reports from staff have spiked at the University of Adelaide. Picture: Russell Millard

Fears that Adelaide University students are being seen as “walking dollar signs” and a merger with the University of SA will create a “meat grinder producing poorly educated students”, have emerged in a report released under Freedom of Information laws.

Alongside serious concerns about the University of Adelaide’s future learning, is data showing a spike in bullying and harassment reports from staff starting when merger plans were revealed in December 2022.

UniSA chancellor Pauline Carr, Deputy Premier Susan Close, Governor Frances Adamson, Premier Peter Malinauskas, University of Adelaide chancellor Catherine Branson (l-r front) UniSA vice-chancellor David Lloyd and University of Adelaide vice-chancellor Peter Hoj. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

There were 92 reports of bullying and harassment in three and a half years between January 2019 until June 2022, according to figures released under FOI.

This spiked to 104 in just one year and eight months from July 2022 to March 2024 after the merger was first mooted, in one quarter alone last year there were 22 complaints.

A culture survey conducted between February and March last year, released along with bullying data to Greens MLC Robert Simms, also raised serious concerns about the merger expected to be completed this year.

This included fears “that the first few years will be chaos and that students will be the people who suffer from lack of clarity, lack of service the most”.

“It will be a meat grinder producing poorly educated students with little to offer the community,” another staff member said.

“Students will be treated as walking dollar signs with no attention to the student experience, either in terms of education and support.”

Mr Simms said the “buck stops” with the State Government after it backed the contentious merger in July 2023 with almost $450m in taxpayer funds to ensure staff were supported.

He was “alarmed” to see a spike in bullying and harassment complaints following the merger plan announcement and said the government needed to “ensure that this will not continue to be a problem”.

The number of reports recorded in each quarter from December 2022 has remained consistently high each quarter compared to the same periods between 2019 and 2022.

Deputy Premier Susan Close said staffing and culture was “a matter for the university”.

While a University of Adelaide spokesperson said the uni was committed to providing a safe and respectful environment and encouraged reporting of incidents, adding that an Integrity Unit was established in 2022 to address complaints about “conduct, including bullying and harassment”.

“Establishing the Integrity Unit has provided greater visibility of the concerns impacting our community,” the spokesperson said.

He said the university had not experienced an increase in staff resignations since the merger was announced.