The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) became the focal point of a tense parliamentary hearing on 7 November, as Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Parfitt and senior university leaders faced questions over governance, accountability, and financial management. The hearing marked the opening session of the NSW Legislative Council’s Inquiry into the University Sector, chaired by MLC Dr Sarah Kaine, amid what unions describe as a “crisis in higher education.” The inquiry, conducted by the Standing Committee on Social Issues, seeks to examine systemic governance issues across New South Wales universities, including how governing bodies are appointed and how decisions affecting staff and students are made.
A Sector in Crisis
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) delivered stark testimony on the structural problems plaguing the sector. Vince Caughley, NTEU NSW Division Secretary, told the committee that “70 percent of university staff are insecurely employed,” with 40 percent working casually and most of the remainder on fixed-term contracts. He highlighted “rampant wage theft” as a symptom of the system’s dysfunction, referencing the $70 million remediation bill at the University of Sydney and recent SafeWork NSW interventions at both UTS and Macquarie University over unsafe change management practices.
Caughley renewed calls for reform of university governing bodies, arguing that at least half of council members should be elected representatives of staff and students. “Council or Senate members should have a very real stake in their universities,” he said, emphasizing that democratic participation could help prevent governance decisions made “by people with no skin in the game.”
Vice-Chancellor Parfitt Faces Intense Questioning
UTS Vice-Chancellor Andrew Parfitt faced particularly sharp criticism over the university’s Operational Sustainability Initiative (OSI), a controversial cost-cutting plan aimed at saving $100 million that has triggered over 100 expected redundancies. In September, SafeWork NSW intervened to halt the process, citing concerns about its management and impact on staff well-being. Parfitt defended the plan, attributing UTS’s financial strain to “serious shocks to the financial system” caused by COVID-19, the federal government’s international student caps, and looming debt repayments on a $300 million bond due by 2027.
Dr Kaine pressed Parfitt on whether he retained the confidence of his institution: “How can this government have confidence that you’re the right person to keep doing this job?”
Parfitt responded that he believed he had the confidence of the UTS Council to manage “very substantial shocks to the system.” Kaine shot back: “The Council or your staff at UTS? Because they’re two quite different constituencies.”
Governance Structure Under Fire
Questions about accountability dominated the session, with MLC Anthony D’Adam challenging the legitimacy of the UTS Council’s composition. Parfitt confirmed that a majority of the 18-member Council is appointed by the Council itself, prompting D’Adam to ask bluntly: “Aren’t you a self-perpetuating clique? You’re accountable to the Council, and you’re part of the process that appoints the Council. Who are you actually accountable to?”
Parfitt maintained that Council appointments are determined through a skills matrix designed to ensure diversity of expertise and experience.
However, D’Adam argued that this process leaves little room for community accountability: “The OSI has massive implications for individuals’ lives and livelihoods and yet it was made by people who have no skin in the game.”
Experts Call for Stakeholder Governance
The inquiry also heard from Professor Thomas Clarke, visiting governance scholar at UTS, who criticized the corporate-style governance model adopted by many universities.
Clarke argued that higher education requires a more participatory and community-driven approach: “Corporate governance has evolved to adopt a stakeholder approach and to be much closer to the constituents. Suggesting corporate boards as a model, isolated from the communities, is not appropriate to the mission and purpose of our universities.”
Clarke’s comments echoed growing calls across Australia for university councils to include greater representation of staff, students, and academic voices, rather than functioning like corporate boards accountable primarily to internal elites or external financiers.
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Reform Momentum Builds Nationwide
The NSW inquiry coincides with broader national scrutiny of higher education governance. The Expert Council on University Governance recently handed down recommendations to strengthen accountability, and the Federal Senate Inquiry into the Quality of Governance at Australian Higher Education Providers is set to report on 4 December. Together, these investigations signal mounting pressure on universities to confront structural power imbalances, opaque financial decision-making, and the erosion of job security across the sector. For UTS and its leadership, the first hearing underscored what many staff and observers already feel: that the crisis in higher education is not just financial, it is fundamentally a crisis of governance, accountability, and trust.
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