Issue 9:
THE UNIVERSITY
Excessive managerialism, neoliberalisation and casualisation are some of the main challenges that are threatening the viability and the values of the university today. Lina, Amber and Scott kick off ‘The University’ issue, introducing the core themes and questions.
The ideology of managerialism in the public university
The education market Two distinct understandings of the corporation have become entwined with one another in the contemporary public university, which has caused confusion and uncertainty as to its character and purpose. The not for-profit corporation was established...
Failure
I firmly believe that universities and academics have the potential to do good; to contribute to a more just, sustainable and peaceful future for our world by advancing public knowledge and understanding. Universities should cultivate the ability in our students to...
antistudy
antistudy these days suggest economy 10 to six five & a half days; read widely but with sycophant calculation in order ‘not to fail’ this, don’t sit too long on this bench construing politics from sunshine— now that language is the subject of your ambits it’s...
The Precariat
Levels of insecure employment within the university sector are increasing. Casual and contract staff have no guarantee of on-going employment. However casual and contract workers (both academic and professional staff) make up 50% of the workforce and this figure is...
The CHL Review Dossier
‘A Ruse to Mislead’: An insider’s account of the review of the School of Culture, History and Language at ANU The curtain is drawn back to reveal the tumultuous planning behind the CHL review. IN ESSAY ‘I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally’ By Lina...
Resisting the casualised university
Australian universities are now more reliant on casualised labour than at any other point in their history. While university management may see this as a positive trend, this essay argues that both the nature and scale of casualised labour have had almost wholly...
At what point is the university not worth defending?
Rosie Joy Barron is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education, where she is involved with the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). For this issue of demos journal, I decided to ask Rosie if she’d chat with me about her research...
How Heterodox Academy creates a safe space for bad ideas
In March of 2019, during a rally, Donald Trump threatened to execute an executive order requiring “colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research funds” (Shepardson & Johnson 2018). The details are foggy on exactly what this order...
Inconvenient questions from a casual academic
How can I ever tell you what is really like? How do I explain the will necessary to get up each day, to go and work somewhere that I know doesn’t value me? How do I explain the impact that those bemused looks have when I encounter yet another obligatory bureaucratic...
Location Location Location
A shifting margin pivots on desire to assimilate under the purview of theorists who say the goodies are for the earning. Publishing is your real estate. Texts incise – a colleague says efface – bodies matter too I say though a text is a gulp drawn to signal this...
Destroying the walls and the doors
“When some day we enter the university – that is to say, when we occupy and decolonize it – we will not merely open the doors and redecorate the walls. We will destroy both so that we may all fit in.” – Boaventura de Sousa Santos Many academics – especially those who...
Death by a thousand cuts
I find it fascinating how in the short time since I graduated from my university’s Diploma of Languages in 2016 and its PhB Bachelor of Philosophy (Arts) in 2017, both programs[1] have been scrapped.[2] Yet while I was somewhat shocked to hear the news, I can’t say I...![[fʌk]](https://demosjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/fck-e1574341475375.jpg)
[fʌk]
“ffffffffffffff.” Fricative relationship between us. “ffffffffffffff.” Like my grades then; fourteen’s a difficult age. “ffffffffffffff.” Filial defiance, common among boys. “ffffffffffffff.” My utterance became your fists, falling plosives, blow after blow, ...
Hostility or Hospitality
Kambri is an island, a detachment that floats separate to the rest of campus. This “cultural precinct” and “community space” features a flashy bookstore, cafés, student services, and open-plan study spaces. Students at the Australian National University are meant to...
Time to face the music?
Academic labour is grounded in long-established, and sometimes hard-won, scholarly traditions that help to shape and direct academic disciplines and secure the trust of the wider public in the results of that labour. It should be no surprise, then, to find that...
What makes universities valuable? One international student’s journey
Although universities have developed differently in each country, essentially all universities are similar: they are communities of students and scholars. Universities are communities where we realise social problems, raise issues and discuss how we could solve the...
Pedagogic Dissonance
Welcome to our university, where you will experience the best education the world can offer. Our focus on teaching excellence, and our endeavour to provide you learning tailored to your needs [1] will create an environment that will facilitate your journey to becoming...
Knights In The Garden
Much clanking in the rhododendrons, knights in the garden Black knights, white knights, knights of the haiku table Goes at pashing and tableaux of Glenrowan, garden knights Much enjoyment of metal frustration, knights in garden Larkspur, machine parts: satiric...
Ending the neoliberal university
This is an edited version of an address to an NTEU election forum in April 2019, when the author was Greens candidate for the seat of Canberra. Universities are a critical site not just of learning, but also of social change, of progress, of democracy. Universities...
For a public university of the commons: a contribution to a growing discussion
The Matters of Concern Collective (MoCC) is a group of academics and PhD students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds who have come together in response to existing conditions in universities in Australia. MoCC operate in a horizontal structure, and work...
The future of the university: an interview with Raewyn Connell
Lina Koleilat interviews Raewyn Connell the author of The Good University: What universities actually do and why it’s time for radical change, (Monash University Publishing, 2019) LK: Shall we start with your definition of what a University is? RC: There’s a formal...Past Issues
