ABSTRACT
The corporatization of Australian universities in part has resulted from a drop of government funding from around 90 percent of university budgets in the 1970s to around 42 percent in 2010. As governments have cut back funding for higher education, universities have formed an increasing number of linkages with corporations, often referred to as public–private partnerships, and in essence have evolved into bastions of academic capitalism. This chapter provides a historical overview of the corporatization of particularly the University of Melbourne, an institution which touts itself as Australia's #1 University, through the eras of six vice-chancellors, namely David Derham, David Caro, David Pennington, Alan Gilbert, Glyn Davis, and Duncan Maskell. It also includes a discussion of the development of international students as Australia's fourth largest export industry as a component of the Australian corporate university and dilemmas this development encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
