Sydney Uni professor who quit in racism scandal now private tutor

A former University of Sydney professor who resigned after writing emails referring to “Mussies” is charging hundreds as a high school tutor.

A disgraced former University of Sydney professor who resigned over racist emails which called Aboriginals “human rubbish tips” and said the 1950s were better because there were less “bogans”, “fatsoes”, “Mussies” and “Chinky-poos” around Australia is offering his expertise to high school students.

Dr Barry Spurr is using his numerous degrees from Oxford and the University of Sydney to earn $200 an hour to tutor high school students, making him one of the most expensive tutors in Sydney.

According to his online profile he specialises in helping students with their close reading of texts, especially poetry, so as to “appeal to ­examiners and earn those valuable extra marks.”

“Please note — I DO NOT TRAVEL,” it states.

Former University of Sydney professor Barry Spurr, who called Aboriginal people “human rubbish tips.”

When contacted by The Daily Telegraph, Dr Spurr described his $200 hourly fee as “pocket money” for him in his retirement since he resigned from Sydney University over the racist email scandal, but said it had not hampered his ability to drum up business.

“Nobody has ever mentioned it, you’re the first to mention it,” he said.

He defended the emails at the time by saying they were a “whimsical linguistic game” and said they were intended to mock the extreme language used.

Dr Spurr said his charges were commensurate with his 40 years’ experience and parents were willing to pay.

“At the moment I have more (students) than I can cope with, I have about a dozen,” he said. “I do a lot of work between class looking at draft essays improving style and expression, in ­between the hour I spend with students.”

Some tutors are prized by parents because of their reputation for flipping failing dunces into straight A students. Picture: istock

Australian Tutoring Asso­ciation president Mohan Dhall said so-called “super tutors” charging hundreds of dollars an hour generate business through word-of-mouth and were prized by parents for delivering solid results for students.

He said one tutor in Burwood charged up to $1500 for a two-hour session in four unit maths because he was in such hot demand by parents.

“This is a small subject ­cohort where it really matters to get high marks in those four units of maths.

“He will take on kids in some of the elite schools and he can turn them around, he can get them to go from (a ranking of) ninth in a year group up to first or second.”

While many tutors were uni students charging more than $100 an hour because they got a perfect ATAR score, Mr Dhall said they were not necessarily able to impart that knowledge.