Universities ‘are dumbing down out of greed’

Angry academics are blaming university chiefs for ‘dumbing down’ degrees to enrol students with low levels of literacy and numeracy as ‘cash cows’.

An association of academics has criticised the ‘dumbing down’ of degrees. ​

Angry academics are blaming university chiefs for “dumbing down’’ degrees to enrol students with low levels of literacy and numeracy as “cash cows’’.

With 200,000 international students flying into Australia to begin university courses this year, an alliance of academics and ­student and postgraduate associations known as Public Universities Australia has criticised falling academic standards.

The PUA has warned a Senate inquiry of the “dumbing down of student assessment tasks to accommodate higher numbers of both domestic and international students with lower levels of literacy and numeracy’’.

“(There is) the widespread attitude among senior management that students are ‘cash cows’,’’ PUA states in its submission, which it says is endorsed by Academics for Public Universities and the Australian Association of University Professors.

The PUA says university leaders frequently ignore the “core functions’’ of teaching, research and community outreach, while prioritising property development and investment vehicles.

It notes significant reductions in sessional class time, teaching instruction and support available to students, with significant increases in staff to student ratios since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Universities, it says, “are now run like corporations by a largely unaccountably but highly paid cadre of executives and senior managers who appear disconnected from academic values’’.

“Public companies are accountable to their shareholders (yet) public universities, for all intents and purposes, are accountable to no one,’’ it states.

The PUA is demanding legislative changes to “give staff, students and the general public more ability to hold university executives and senior managers to account for poor decision-making, incompetence, malfeasance and corruption’’.

“At present, these kinds of ­behaviours cannot be adequately investigated,’’ the PUA told the Senate inquiry into student debt.

“Consequently, those engaged in such activities cannot be held accountable for their actions, nor can they be prosecuted.

“The result is a feeding frenzy free-for-all by private consultancies and contractors that are providing ‘services’ which were previously provided by university employees.

“Our own investigations suggest that many of these businesses and individuals have nepotistic links to those occupying senior positions in our universities.’’

The PUA notes “tens of millions of dollars in wage theft’’ by public universities due to widespread noncompliance with employer obligations. And it says universities have culled unprofitable subjects, courses and disciplines, regardless of their social, cultural or political importance.

“We believe that the core functions of universities are the creation and dissemination of knowledge, and of supporting the community as a reservoir of highly specialised expertise,’’ the PUA states.

“These functions are underpinned by core academic values of rigour in expertise, collegiality, freedom of speech, robust intellectual discourse, freedom of academic research, commitment to advancing and promulgating knowledge, and truth in all academic works.

“Managers who fail to abide by and support these core values also fail to properly steward the institutions for which they are responsible. Such failed management is increasingly evident in Australian universities.’’

The PUA lists its supporters as the National Tertiary Education Union the National Union of Students, and the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.

The organisation, formed last year by a group of disgruntled ­academics, did not respond to ­requests for further comment.

Universities Australia, the recognised lobby group for universities, and the NTEU declined to respond to the PUA claims.

But UA chief executive Catriona Jackson hailed the return of 200,000 international students, saying: “These numbers are very encouraging as we continue to regain the ground we lost,”