Lecturers, tutors, academics, administrative staff and other National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members will strike from 12.30pm for four days to protest failed negotiations for a decent pay rise, more job security, and reduced workloads.

Some students have reported receiving emails from teachers informing them classes may be impacted as “many staff will be joining colleagues across the university … to protest the lack of progress in negotiating an Enterprise Agreement”.

Secretary of the NTEU Victorian division Sarah Roberts described the week-long period of industrial action as “unprecedented for RMIT”, but said staff have “upped the ante” in hope of finally coming to an agreement with university management.

“I’ve been bargaining since 2001, and I can’t recall a longer period of time since the expiry of an agreement,” she said.

“There’s been this absolutely intolerable delay in getting bargaining done [at RMIT] and that’s why we are at this extreme point of taking this week-long industrial action.”

Monash University students were also told to prepare for cancelled classes and reduced support services last Wednesday when hundreds of staff walked off the job for 24 hours.

Monash NTEU members were on strike from noon, following 18 months of failed negotiations for a 4.5 per cent pay rise, more job security, a cap on academic workloads, and the right to work from home.

Sarah Roberts said a “significant number” of staff participated in the Monash industrial action.

“We’ve been bargaining for 18 months and people are getting sick and tired of it,” she said.

“The university management decided to spend over $127,000 on a farewell party for [outgoing vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner,] yet at the same time there’s been more than $10m in wage theft from casual employees.

“This is nothing short of a governance failure. It certainly fails the pub test from the staff’s point of view.”

The industrial action included staff rallying outside the University Council’s Chancellery Building at Monash’s Clayton campus on Wednesday afternoon before they engaged in other strike activities.

The union members then picketed at the Clayton campus bus terminal from 8.30am on Thursday before returning to work at noon.

“We don’t take the decision to embark on industrial action lightly,” Ms Roberts said.

“We only do so if there’s no other choice. There will be an impact on students but we’ll be open to calling it off anytime if the university is open to shifting [an agreement] forward.”

A Monash University spokesman said management remained committed to reaching a fair and equitable agreement “as quickly as possible”.

“We believe all remaining matters can be resolved with continued goodwill and openness to compromise on both sides,” they said.

Since late 2022, the university has had 42 meetings with the NTEU over the dispute.

Mr Grant, 60, had only been in the role for six months after signing up to lead the university’s Constructive Institute Asia Pacific in the Faculty of Arts, which is devoted to media integrity.

He has since joined The Saturday Paper, owned by Schwartz Media, as a columnist, with his first column being published on March 9.

Monash University Faculty of Arts Dean Katie Stevenson confirmed Mr Grant had made the “difficult decision to step down from his role” at the university and “remains passionately committed” to what the Institute is trying to achieve.

“He will now focus on himself, his family and explore ways to support his community on country,” Ms Stevenson said in a statement.

“Stan Grant remains deeply supportive of the Constructive Institute Asia Pacific.

“The Institute remains dedicated to building on the University’s commitment to fostering greater integrity in journalism while countering misinformation in the media.”

Editor-in-chief of The Saturday Paper Erik Jensen said Mr Grant would be a welcome addition to the paper’s “intellectual life”.

“There are few people who write with Stan’s grace and erudition,” Mr Jensen said.

“He is one of the country’s sharpest journalists and he brings to his work a great store of intellect and feeling.

“He believes in the capacity of ideas to change society – and that is what his column will seek to do.”

Mr Grant said he was looking forward to contributing once more to the journalism landscape.

“The Saturday Paper is a writer’s paper and its readers want to engage with ideas. That’s where I want my work to land,” he said.

“I’ve been fortunate to have travelled the world over a 40-year career in journalism, covering the great stories of our time, and I want to bring that experience to understanding a world where far too often we speak across each other not to each other.

“Journalism has been part of the problem, but I still think words matter and my promise to readers is that my columns will look to a shared humanity, to a commitment to justice, and stand with the afflicted in generosity and love.”

Mr Grant’s latest career move comes after he walked away from hosting duties on the ABC’s Q&A program in May 2023, citing racist abuse as the reason behind his departure from the show.

During his final episode as host of the current affairs show, Mr Grant said: “I am down right now, but I will get back up”.

His appointment coincides with The Saturday Paper’s 10th anniversary.

Professor Margaret Gardner has left Monash to become the Governor of Victoria, after nine years leading the university.

Her farewell at the National Gallery of Victoria in July was labelled "wasteful" by the union, and included a three-course meal, drinks, and performances by singers Kate Ceberano and Joe Camilleri.

Others have said Monash executives who attended the party amid a cost-of-living crisis are "out-of-touch", as increased financial pressures often greatly impact university students.

"Where was the lavish function for all the Monash casual academics who had more than $10m in wages stolen?" NTEU president Alison Barnes said.

"Staff are under crushing pressure, with two-thirds in insecure employment while uni executives spend outrageous amounts on congratulating themselves.

"The lack of accountability is appalling. The federal government must overhaul the broken governance model in response to the Universities Accord."

NTEU Monash branch president Ben Eltham questioned why the university couldn't use its own arts facilities.

"Is this a breach of the university's policies? And if not, why not?" Dr Eltham said.

"Monash Uni has its own performing arts centre at Clayton. Why wasn’t that used, instead of a no-expenses-spared blowout at the National Gallery of Victoria?

"Monash Uni Council is badly out of touch. While they throw extravagant parties for top execs, the university has slipped to 37th out of 42 Australian universities for student experience."

A Monash spokesperson said the spending was in line with university rules and protocols.

"The event was a celebration of achievement for Prof Gardner and an opportunity to acknowledge … current and former university staff, education, research and engagement partners,” the spokesperson said in a written statement.

During her time as former vice-chancellor, Monash University raised its academic standing to make it into the top 50 universities in the Times Higher Education world university rankings.

However, last year, the uni dropped 10 places to to 54th. In previous years, it had ranked below the top 100.

Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson told Sky News the send-off was a "very bad look".

"The majority of university funding does come from the taxpayer, and, of course, students make a very big contribution," she said.

"HECS debt has gone up an average of $2,700 a year, which is just extraordinary [for students]."

Ms Henderson called on Education Minister Jason Clare to investigate why the university was allowed to spend such a large sum on a "lavish" dinner.

"It's so pretentious, it's so inappropriate, and it comes at the worst possible time."

Staff are unimpressed with the university urging them to “explore alternative modes of transport” such as cycling, carpooling and public transport.

It comes as the university has seen a return to pre-Covid campus attendance, with most car parks full during peak periods.

The prices during non-peak times are capped at $7.05 a day for red permit areas but peak pricing will see costs rise to $10.60 a day.

At peak times prices will double, surging from $107 for a normal 28-day permit to $212 for a peak permit.

The highest costs will be in the first four weeks of semester one and two and during Clayton campus May and September graduations.

The new 'Pay As You Use System' will take effect today on the Clayton, Caulfield, Peninsula and Parkville campuses.

According to an all staff email, the rise in fees is to “meet the increased operational and maintenance costs associated with parking”.

“We strongly encourage you to explore alternative modes of transportation whenever feasible. A shift from single-occupancy vehicles towards sustainable alternatives such as carpooling will contribute to Monash University’s Net Zero Transport Strategy by reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with travelling to Monash campuses," the email said.

Social media posts made after the announcement directed towards Bradley Williamson, the university’s executive director of buildings and property, made it clear staff are not happy.

One noted that she would need “ an additional 1% pay rise JUST to cover this additional cost”.

Another said: “I am expected to be at work five days a week so I guess I am supposed to be ok spending $200 a (month) for parking at work in March”.

Others accused the university of “greed” and “price gouging at its best”.

National Tertiary Education Union Monash branch president Dr Ben Eltham said staff were not consulted about the price hike, which will also have an impact on students.

“The university has offered staff a three per cent pay rise this year - but these parking hikes are as high as 106 per cent. There’s been no consultation, just an email out to staff with the bad news.

“These charges hurt students and frontline teaching and administration staff the worst. Public transport to Clayton remains substandard and not everyone can easily get there on a train, plus a bus."

One source said staff “who have to be on campus for three weeks over O Week and semester will pay $300 for three weeks of parking”.

Many pointed out that taking public transport to the main Clayton campus adds an hour to the journey each way.

The university was contacted for comment, but did not respond before the time of publication.

Confiscated Assets Account will expand Monash's AI for Law Enforcement and Community Safety Lab's (AiLECS Lab) research capacity to disrupt digital exploitation networks.

The flagship four-year program, co-directed by Monash associate professor Campbell Wilson and AFP leading senior constable Dr Janis Dalins, will support ongoing operations targeting child exploitation networks, illegal firearm trafficking, and harmful deep fake disinformation.

AiLECS Lab will become a comprehensive research centre using machine learning, natural language processing, and network analysis to pioneer research in a law enforcement context.

What is AiLECS?

AiLECS Lab began as a research lab in 2019 and has an ongoing partnership with the AFP to develop sophisticated algorithms that could detect digital content related to child exploitation.

Professor Jon Rouse APM joined AiLECS Lab as a Professor of Practice, advancing machine learning technology to combat child sexual exploitation incidents.Considered a pioneer in countering child exploitation, Professor Rouse was awarded the 2018 "Champion for Children Award" in New York and Queensland's 2019 Australian of the Year.

AiLECS Lab is developing an algorithm that could learn to recognise components of an image that may indicate the presence of sexual content and the presence of a child; however ethically sourcing media content to train the algorithm is a challenge.

"The material is illegal to possess, and we don't want to expose our team to traumatic images and videos," Professor Wilson said in an exclusive with Campus Review.

Other studies have used explicit imagery downloaded from the Internet to train image detection algorithms; however, AiLECS Lab team wasn't comfortable using data sets without direct consent to use the images.

"We're trying to shift the dial on the discussion around where does the data come from for AI algorithms, because a lot of it is sourced from the web," Professor Wilson said.

"It's borderline impossible to get explicit consent from children, so one of our researchers suggested asking adults to contribute images of themselves as children because adults can consent to the use of their own image as a child.

We all sort of face palmed and immediately thought, why hadn't we thought of that before?"

In a landmark operation to ethically source and manage sensitive data sets involving child sexual abuse victim-survivors, AiLECS Lab initiated the My Pictures Matter crowdsourcing campaign earlier this year.

"My Pictures Matter is a call to action; join us in the fight to develop technologies to counter child exploitation by contributing your images," Professor Wilson said.

AiLECS Lab now has over 3000 images to train the algorithm and hopes to grow the database to enhance the capability of the algorithm to accurately detect exploitative content.

"We're keen to point out is that it's in no way a facial recognition dataset – we're not using it to try and detect identity – we're using it to train algorithms to understand what a child in general looks like," Professor Wilson said.

In late 2022, Monash University conducted a national survey of 1,412 victim-survivors of workplace sexual harassment in Australia, including 100 people who worked on university campuses.

The survey, led by Monash’s director of gender and family violence prevention Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon, highlights the alarming frequency of workplace sexual harassment events among university staff.

Of the survey respondents, 23 per cent said that they experienced sexual harassment on a weekly basis.

The Monash survey shows that those who lodge a formal complaint aren’t satisfied with the university's response, with more than 70 per cent claiming the university took no action.

“Universities need to take the lead on this issue. Creating a culture of accountability for perpetrators and processes that support and validate victim-survivors’ experiences of harm is critical,” Professor Fitz-Gibbon said.

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) is currently running a survey to understand the extent of educator assault and harassment on university campuses post-pandemic.

NTEU’s last survey, conducted in 2019, showed little difference in the rates of harassment on campus compared to the broader community.

However, the Universities Accord discussion paper shows that up to 80 per cent of undergraduate teaching is done by casual employees which has potential to distort NTEU's data.

The sector’s highly casualised workforce may prevent staff from reporting sexual violence at work if they are concerned about the impact it could have on their career.

Some staff choose to protect themselves by leaving the university

The 2019 survey found that one in four staff were subjected to unwanted touching or cornering, but almost 40 per cent of staff didn’t trust the reporting process and were concerned about the impact it would have on their careers.

University staff have also experienced harassment via anonymous student evaluations, commenting on their physical appearance or other comments of a sexualised nature.

Independent task force

The Accord interim report recommended action to address violence on campus as an immediate priority.

Advocate organisations including End Rape On Campus (EROC), Fair Agenda, and The STOP Campaign (STOP), have called on the federal government to establish an independent task force to hold universities accountable for reporting and preventing sexual violence on campus.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare established a working group admitting “we’re just not doing enough”.

The working group–led by higher education deputy secretary Ben Rimmer–will involve violence prevention expert and Our Watch chief Patty Kinnersley.

The working group will report to state, territory and federal education ministers in November.

The report will also be considered by the Accord panel as they prepare their final report for December.

On Monday, Premier Daniel Andrews announced that Professor Gardner would start her new role at the beginning of August after she concludes her role with Monash University.

She will succeed to Governor Linda Dessau and will be in this position for the next five years.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said Professor Gardner's achievements in the higher education sector were key factors in her appointment.

"Throughout her celebrated academic career, Professor Gardner has broken new ground for women, created fairer and more inclusive spaces for them – and held the door open for those to come after her," Mr Andrews said.

"[She] has dedicated her work to the service of others. I was proud to recommend her appointment to His Majesty."

Professor Gardner became the 10th vice-chancellor of Monash University in 2014 - she was the first woman to score the top job at the Victorian University.

Before joining Monash, she was RMIT University's vice-chancellor from 2005 until 2014.

She was also appointed Chair of the Group of Eight Universities from 2020 until 2023 and Chair of Universities Australia from 2017 to 2019.

Under her tenure, Monash University improved its ranking position to reach the world's top 50 universities in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2023.

Monash University Chancellor, Simon McKeon AO, thanked Professor Gardner for her work at the university throughout the years.

"She leaves behind a significant legacy of growth and achievement which will be felt within the Monash community for generations to come," said Mr McKeon.

"The people of Victoria can be assured they will be well-represented nationally and globally and that their interests will be fiercely advocated for with Professor Gardner in post."

Monash University is now seeking a new vice-chancellor and will announce Professor Gardner's interim replacement in the next couple of weeks.

The new pass which accessible on mobile phones and connected watches, will replace university identification and allow staff and students to gain access to campus facilities.

Monash said the move to digital has been cost-effective, environmentally friendly and created a safer environment.

Monash university director, digital and Monash connect Josh Teichman said students have been "hungry for this type of technology".

"[It] offers greater flexibility, a more secure experience, and aligns to our aspirations to be net zero by reducing plastic waste,” Mr Teichman said.

Mr Teichman said Monash's M-Pass is similar to other tap and pay technologies. 

Students and staff will have to hold their phones near a reader to gain access to the campus facilities including shuttle bus services, the gym, and the library as well as for printing and photocopying.

Users will also be able to add their M-Pass to their Apple or Google Wallet to be able to use their university ID without having to unlock their devices.

The university said it will also put mobile phone chargers at disposal in common areas in case students' are running low on battery.

Monash chief operating officer and senior vice-president Peter Marshall said Monash prides itself as Australia's first university to fully digitalise ID access.

"We’re proud to be at the forefront of a modern, more efficient way for students and staff to engage with our campus facilities and services," Mr Marshall said.

Tens of thousands of new and existing students and staff will be using M-Pass from first semester.

The tablets – infused with tiny doses of grass pollens – have been found to provide long-term protection against allergic reactions, including thunderstorm asthma.

Monash University Allergy and Clinical Immunology Laboratory head Menno van Zelm said the prescription tablets could help retrain the immune system to reduce an allergic reaction.

“It is a very important tablet,” Professor van Zelm told 3AW radio station.

“It’s actually used to retrain the immune system.”

The tablet must be put under the tongue each day for four months in the lead-up to the pollen season.

It contains a small amount of grass pollen that illicits a response that can retrain the immune system.

“In that environment it doesn‘t cause a very strong reaction, but it’s actually used to retrain the immune system and make sure it doesn’t cause a severe allergic reaction,” Professor van Zelm said.

However, Professor van Zelm warned that it didn’t work equally for all allergy sufferers.

“It works in many people but not in everyone,” he said.

“It really depends on how severe it is. If it‘s really mild I would at this stage recommend using antihistamine, but you should talk to your GP,” he said.

Melbourne in particular has been described as the hay fever capital of Australia and Professor van Zelm has helped explain why.

“With the winds coming from the north in the morning, they take up the pollen over the ocean and the wind them turns around bringing this sort of wet moist air with pollen in it,” Professor van Zelm said.

“It makes a very high dose of pollen that makes many people sensitised.”

Michael Lazarus, a casual lecturer in political and social inquiry, has taught at Monash since 2015 and says he works a minimum of 4 hours of unpaid work each week.

“I really feel undervalued in the strongest possible way. We're responsible for the quality of education, and we're getting paid peanuts,” Lazarus told Campus Review.

“The feeling is of being so vulnerable and so disadvantaged in a system in which there's just so much money, it has an impact.”

Last month, The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) sent a letter to Monash’s vice-chancellor accusing the university of systemic underpayment of casual staff.

This came after 11 Australian universities were flagged by the Fair Work Commission for ongoing wage theft, including UTS, Melbourne University and the University of Sydney.

According to Lazarus, systemic underpayment within the university sector is part of a larger culture around casualisation, where staff take unpaid work in hopes to gain a permanent job.

He estimates Monash owes him at least $40,000 since he began working.

“I think the universities cash in on the fact that it is so wonderful to teach, they just expect people to do it for so little,” he said.

“I'm a very committed teacher, and I think it's so wonderful to be able to teach people at this level, but you are really treated as if they could say goodbye to you tomorrow – like you are hired help.”

Being a casual academic also limits research opportunities and further career development, Lazarus said.

In between semesters and employment contracts, he loses email access and privileges to borrow books, which delays his research output.

“There's a sense in which, once your contract finishes, you are not part of the Monash community anymore,” he said.

Scott Robinson, who has taught at Monash’s school of philosophical, historical and international studies for five years, said there's growing bitterness among casual staff.

“We sort of have to wait with bated breath to see whether we'll get a job. It produces a lot of stress, and makes it very difficult to plan for the future,” he said.

With a permanent position, Robinson said he could build an expertise, improve lesson plans, better communicate with students, try new things and invest in his teaching skills. 

A Monash University spokesperson told Campus Review the university had taken “significant steps to improve its systems and processes for payment of casual staff”.

“A total of 597 casual and sessional employees have transitioned to more secure forms of employment in the last year, and a further 54 contract employees have transitioned to continuing employment over the same period,” a statement read.