Advertise on podcast: Ed Nauseam

Can bigger guarantee better? Julie Hare and Ant Bagshaw take on university mergers. In Perth, a Deloitte report says combining UWA, Curtin and Murdoch could return up to $8 billion. But why would the same parts, rearranged, be worth billions more? Over in South Australia, Adelaide University is nearly a year old, and staff and students are paying for changing the curriculum, the systems and the brand all at once. Meanwhile the international student market that held up the business case has turned. Then to the UK, where Greenwich is taking over Kent and King’s is merging with Cranfield. British universities merge when they’re in trouble, but Australian governments merge them when they want something. And Ant and Julie debate what a state government that took its universities seriously would actually do. Recorded at Parliament House, with thanks to InnovationAus. Support the show

Julie Hare goes from asking the questions to answering Ant Bagshaw's. Recorded at Parliament House as guests of Innovation Aus, this episode follows Julie from women's magazines to Campus Review, The Australian and the AFR, and on to freelancing and The Hare Report. She explains what makes a story worth publishing, why press releases almost never make the cut, and how a leaked spreadsheet becomes a scoop. She also recalls being yelled at by her editor over The Australian's coverage of fee deregulation, and carrying on regardless. Then there's the bigger question. The advertising money has gone, vice-chancellors have withdrawn from public debate, and expertise is spread thin. So who keeps specialist scrutiny of the sector going? Plus the ANU story Julie is proudest of, and the glamour of education junkets. Support the show

Ant Bagshaw and Julie Hare take on Job-Ready Graduates, the policy no one defends. Julie blames the sector for letting it pass in 2020 without a fight. Ant defends one part of it: shifting more of the cost onto students to expand the system. They agree the price signals don't change what students choose to study. Julie thinks Labor is holding back the fix as a sweetener for the next election. If so, students will have been on JRG fees for a decade. Ant points out that any fix risks bad headlines unless an offer can be found for nurses and teachers. The real argument comes later: the sector worries too much about student debt and too little about students' living costs. Youth Allowance numbers have fallen as enrolments have grown. Ant calls paid prac the government's most significant move in this space; he thinks universities should stop lobbying on JRG and push for better student financial support, which also helps them keep students. Ed Nauseam is recorded in the Innovation Aus studio in Australian Parliament House. Support the show

Consulting firms are on the nose. Four inquiries into university governance have landed on them, the sector spends an estimated $1.8 billion a year, and a former consultant taking a senior university job is now enough to provoke an FoI request or a media inquiry. In the first episode of Ed Nauseam, recorded at Parliament House in the Innovation Aus studio, Julie Hare and Ant Bagshaw disagree productively about why. Julie's case is about work that doesn't understand universities, consultation decided in advance, and governing bodies that won't open the books. Ant's is that blame has been over-allocated to the firms and under-allocated to the institutions which hire them, and that a system where only metro universities with high international enrolments can comfortably balance a budget was always going to produce this. But does all that mean consultants should be considered evil? Read more in The Hare Report: A brief history of dirty deeds and university bossesJohn Dewar's very public humiliationWhat's cooking in the Kitchen?Support the show