Just a little thread on COVID19 austerity and unis in so-called Australia. #savehigheredjobs

Corporate universities strategising about how to ‘preserve’ the quality of teaching and learning during a pandemic are fundamentally misrecognising the origins of these issues. 1/

The structurally entrenched casualisation of the university sector has ALREADY compromised the quality of education uni students receive. Don’t misunderstand me- I’m not saying that casual academics aren’t constantly going above and beyond to educate and support students. 2/

I mean that the exorbitant unpaid casual hrs that unis rely on + lack of any paid instruction for casuals on HOW to teach means that often we’re in the dark + under massive stress, only learning how to teach WHILE teaching. Learning effective pedagogical techniques takes time. 3/

On top of this, big corporate universities have been reliant on international student fees for a while, and corporate greed in combination with discriminatory attitudes towards intl students leads to the development of poor quality undergrad and grad courses where... 4/

...intl students are left with a degree from a big-name university that hasn’t necessarily provided them with practical skills and where they’ve been significantly un- or under-supported to reach their full potential. During COVID19, intl students have also been... 5/

...thrown under the bus when it comes to income support packages and have not been grated a reduction in fees despite the transition to remote teaching and learning. But where is that money going if unis are cutting casual and now also permanent staff? 6/

Clearly, the corporatisation of higher education cannot and will not be fixed by a one-dimensional solution. The only way forward is the cultivation and maintenance of genuine solidarity between students and workers at all levels. 7/

We need to fight back together against higher-ups in the sector who are perfectly comfortable with disposing of casuals, screwing over permanent staff, and developing predatory schemes to trap international students. 8/

The ecology of the corporate university is dependent on entrenching divides between different groups to maintain capitalist interests. We can’t afford to throw each other under the bus. 9/

However, there’s also a much broader discussion here abt the entanglement between higher ed, settler colonialism and racial capitalism. Every university in so-called Aus is on stolen land. And Indigenous students and academics often bear the brunt of settler academic fuckery. 10/

W/ the NTEU’s NJPF being ditched and conversations about the potential for a transformation of higher ed, how are permanent + casual workers, former staff + students, going to engage with complicity in settler colonialism + centre + support Indigenous students and colleagues? 11/

There is so much work to do, + it can’t happen w/o reflection on the nature of the sector + it’s embeddedness in/reproduction of racial capitalism + settler colonialism. How are we going to engage a relational ethics of responsibility in the way we organise and move forward? 12/