AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES ARE unsettled.

There is no doubt they are facing significant and real challenges. Many of their buildings have been shuttered on and off in the last year. They have fewer staff and students than they did before the pandemic. By some estimates, 20,000 jobs were lost in 2020; others put the number higher. If this had happened in any other sector, we might have expected more than a muted response from politicians. There is discontent and more than a little trauma within academic and professional staff ranks. Much of the university workforce is employed on short-term and casual contracts. Universities’ relationships with governments and the public appear fraught. These are far from halcyon days.