Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday the ABC reported that the University of Technology Sydney spent $140,000 on an alumni trip to the United States. The vice-chancellor who joined this trip earned over $900,000 in 2023 alone. This comes at a time when institutions like UTS and ANU are undergoing intense cuts. The salaries and expenses of university leadership—about $1 million a year—are an insult both to staff losing their jobs and to students paying thousands of dollars for a degree, only to receive recycled lectures recorded years ago. For students who have attended university since COVID, this is all too familiar: pre-recorded content, minimal engagement and escalating fees. I've received far too many horror stories from students, tutors and lecturers in Western Australia. No wonder our global university rankings are in decline, with over 70 per cent of our tertiary institutions impacted. For the tutors and lecturers who aren't let go, many are forced to work unpaid hours, and others are fighting just to be paid for the work they've done. It's a far cry from the university experience of some people in this place, where you would not only get live lectures every time but it was for free.

The government's plan to cut HECS debts by 20 per cent is not a bad move, but it is a bandaid that fails to address the problems affecting the entire industry, which have turned places of learning into degree factories. The people who should be the focus of the university sector's investment are the students and teachers, not the leadership.