Costly amalgamations: the university merger mania

Concrete details, as they always do on such matters, remain inscrutably patchy. The bill on the merger, which will include IT considerations, course syllabi changes and staff redundancies, is the stuff of speculation and secrecy. $A450 million is one calculation doing the rounds.

Nor is there any genuine assessment about the benefits of such a behemoth. A petition against the amalgamation, which has so far garnered 1,386 signatures, outlines their common defects, from the "loss of institutional identity" inherent to the specific institutions to the matters of decreased competition and a loss of local control.

The National Tertiary Education Union, long defanged in its wars against the corporate marauders and management buccaneers, is at least willing to offer some words of concern. Its SA division secretary, Andrew Miller, fears that the amalgamation "could be catastrophic", feeling that an open and independent inquiry, be it through an independent commission or parliament, is a necessary precondition. But as we have seen, Malinauskas cares little for such procedural or intellectual decencies.

The power dynamics behind the merger should also be noted. The negotiators involved will be handsomely rewarded for their obeisance. The vice-chancellor of UniSA, David Lloyd, is considered the favourite for assuming the reins of the new combine, with Hoj set to get the chancellor's spot.

Any such merger will require the approval of the Upper House of South Australia's parliament, which the government does not, mercifully, control. The Greens have stated they will oppose the merger. They certainly should. Those who stand the most to lose in this institutional swindle – the toiling staff and the students treated as the perennial digits in a dying system – have been arrogantly ignored.