In a media release, NUS Education Officer Luc Velez wrote, “this is NOT a summit of universities, it’s a meeting of university bosses and their corporate allies. Students and staff are the real universities,” it read.
Pictures of the protest showed students holding signs saying “cancel student debt” and “cut Vice-Chancellors Salaries. Not Staff!”
UNSW group ‘Oppose Campus 2.0: Stop UNSW Restructures’, attended the rally. The group posted on their Facebook page that the protest was met with police presence, and one photo posted depicted a police officer spraying pepper spray into a crowd.
Attended by the Federal Education Minister and University Vice-Chancellors and Chancellors around the country, the Summit agenda featured panel conversations on topics such as ‘Reinstating our competitive advantage in international education,’ ‘reinventing student experience and generating strong student outcomes’ and ‘hybrid learning models and leveraging newfound digital capabilities’.
David Gonski, Chancellor of UNSW was a panel member on the discussion about ‘Addressing university governance challenges.’
But the NUS disagreed, claiming that “many of the people attending the event have been responsible for cutting hundreds of jobs.”