There’s an air of uncertainty around my university campus. This week, many of our lecturers and tutors at the University of Melbourne are taking part in a national strike and week-long teaching ban; all but two of my classes have been cancelled. Posters announcing the industrial action are everywhere. Students are speculating about whether classes will resume by the end of semester or whether last Friday was, unexpectedly, our last day on campus for the year. We’re wondering whether our assessments will even be marked and what will happen to our marks and postgraduate plans as a result.
Quite frankly, this sense of instability isn’t new to my university experience and it’s not just my university. In recent years, Australian tertiary education has been plagued by sharp and uneven fee hikes under the job-ready graduates scheme, controversy surrounding the management of pro-Palestine protests, difficulty regulating the use of AI and more.
