Australian universities are under fire after revelations of secret government audit findings, a $1.8 billion consultancy bill and mass job cuts driven by flawed data.
The ABC's Four Corners on Monday painted a damning new picture of governance failure, confirming warnings the NTEU has been raising for years.
The program drew on a draft report from the Australian National Audit Office, analysis of sector-wide consultancy spending, and testimony from the union, academics, students and whistleblowers.
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said the evidence was now impossible to ignore.
"University leaders have been cutting courses, slashing jobs and telling staff and students there was no choice. Our long-held suspicions that the financial crises driving many of those decisions weren't real have now been confirmed. This is a catastrophic failure," she said.
"The NTEU raised these concerns for years. Vice-chancellors didn't want to hear it. Staff, students and the community have paid the price for their arrogance and impunity.
"Every time we look under the bonnet of universities what we see is even more rotten."
The program revealed Australian universities spent an estimated $1.8 billion in a single year on external consultants with no requirement to disclose who they are hiring or what the money is for.
Analysis of university councils and senates found consultancy firm partners embedded on the governing bodies that are supposed to provide oversight, in some cases with those same firms winning lucrative contracts from the universities they were helping to govern.
"Consultants with no accountability, liability or expertise are being paid billions to gut universities," Dr Barnes said.
"When the data they use is wrong and the advice is bad, nobody is held responsible - except the staff who lose their jobs."
Education Minister Jason Clare pointed out measures the government was taking on accountability and new legislation to strengthen the regulator TEQSA's powers.
Dr Barnes welcomed the government's direction but urged faster and more ambitious reform.
"The Senate inquiry has done its work," she said.
TEQSA needs the powers the minister has promised. Jobs Ready Graduates - a funding model that has failed students and universities alike - must be replaced.
"The government knows what needs to be done, now it's time for major action."
The NTEU is calling for:
Full implementation of the Senate inquiry's governance recommendations
Mandatory public disclosure of all consultancy spend, by firm and purpose, with an explanation of how internal capacity does not exist
Strengthened TEQSA powers to intervene when governance fails
Replacement of Jobs Ready Graduates with a funding model that puts students first
Increased staff and student representation on university councils and new powers for academic boards to hold university councils to account
