Zoomed - A personal reflection on the long, slow destruction of Australia’s university system

Oct 15, 2026

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“Zoomed” records a first-person account of how Australia’s university system has been gradually dismantled through politicisation, corporatisation, marketisation, and casualisation. After being made redundant following a Zoom conversation with senior leaders, the author describes a shift toward “strategic” operational planning, performative metrics, and the invisibility of long-serving academics. The reflection links institutional decisions to COVID-19-related acceleration and highlights ongoing losses despite earlier achievements and system expansion.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time11 min

AccessFree to download

Zoom call and redundancy

“Strategic” plans and the removal from the organisational chart

Broader consequences for humanities research

Vetoed ARC grants and ongoing assessments

System trajectory and historical context

Predicted destruction versus positive developments

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Zoomed – A personal reflection on the long, slow destruction of Australia’s university system Louise Johnson After 40 years as a hardworking and productive academic, here I was on a Zoom call fronting two senior colleagues telling me I no longer appeared on the new ‘organisational chart’. In short, I was being made redundant. It was no surprise really, as another 40,000 professional and academic staff were to suffer the same fate. And really by then I was over what university life had become: stressed, thankless, driven by meaningless metrics and bereft of social values. But how did we get to this and was COVID-19 but a ruse, asmokescreen for an acceleration of the processes of politicisation, corporatisation, marketisation and casualisation which had brought my beloved system to its knees. Here then is a personal/political reflection on what has occurred in Australian universities over the last few decades – their long slow agonising destruction. Keywords: Australian universities; Covid-19; politicisation; corporatisation; marketisation; casualisation The day was crisp and cold, but as usual, there was a lockdown routine: rise after the daily dose of Radio National, breakfast and then the long coffee walk. It was 8.30 when the Zoom invite came through. Time to meet the dean and head of school – 9.30. One hour to preparefor one of the biggest conversations ever. What to do? Check emails of course, see how the students are faring. Wonder if the trade union should be involved. Eventually decide that this would be wise and sent off a‘help’ email at 8.45 which a week later still has not been answered. And so there they were, theirfacesfloating on the screen: she reading like a robotfrom a prepared script – the better not to stuff up the process or let any emotion or humanity show; he to answer short questions with short answers – yes geography would stay but it would be smaller … and sure, an honorary position could be done ... And then, of course, there are the counselling services... The situation was ‘serious.’ COVID-19 had created a realproblem for the university and the Vice Chancellor had decided to handle it by being ‘strategic’ which meant there was a new ‘operational plan’ and a set of ‘principles…’ (T)hen a statement that in the new faculty plan, there was a matching of people to positions and my name was not on the plan. And that was it. I was officially invisible, castfrom the plan, the place, the citadel of knowledge to which I had devoted over half my life. This after 40 years. It is a personal loss – offace, of salary, of purpose, of esteem, of place. But it is also an institutional loss…of deep knowledge, of a great deal of experience, of living the history of a university where myfirstjob was to ‘build a bachelor of arts’ and then create whole new areas of study –Australian Studies, Women’s Studies, Cultural Studies, Asian Studies – and do ground-breaking thinking… which has changed the way the discipline, a host of students and at least some vol. 64, no. 2, 2022 Zoomed – A personal reflection on the long, slow destruction of Australia’s university system Louise Johnson 33 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W of the world now thinks about and plans cities. But clearly this isnot noteworthy or deserving of any acknowledgement. We are now in the ‘consultation’phase so I can argue against the need for my discipline no longer to need any leadership – as the position, notjust me, has to be rationalised out of existence. Excerptfrom the ‘Redundancy Diary’, 2 June 2020. Nearly two years on, the system which declared me redundant continues to suffer. Today it is news that six Australian Research Council (ARC) grants in the humanities have been vetoed by the Acting Minister because they ‘do not demonstrate value for taxpayer’s money nor contribute to the national interest’ (Lamond, 2022). This after endless internal and

FAQs

What triggers the author’s redundancy in the Zoomed account?

A Zoom call with senior colleagues and dean/head of school leads to the author being placed off the new organisational plan, effectively making the author redundant.

How does the author connect COVID-19 to changes in universities?

The author argues COVID-19 functioned as a cover for an acceleration of processes such as politicisation, corporatisation, marketisation, and casualisation.

What evidence of wider damage does the author point to after the redundancy?

The author cites vetoed Australian Research Council (ARC) humanities grants, described as justified by failure to demonstrate value and national interest.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Jiven