The rock star at the University

I have been a student and casual employee of the university for over a decade. In 2013-14 I helped organise the People’s Tribunal Inquiry into the Business Improvement Program (BIP), which was then being implemented at the University of Melbourne. In this I witnessed first-hand the emergence of the newest phase of the corporatisation of tertiary institutions. As well as witnessing the abysmal treatment of professional staff at Melbourne, led by contracted consultants charged with developing and implementing the BIP, another declaration caught my attention. ‘Students as customers’ was a line I’d heard, but until recently I’d never felt that it fitted the remit of a university.