Last week, Vice-Chancellor Emma Johnston announced a radical move for the University of Melbourne. In a University-wide email, she declared, “The University will be trialing a new recorded lecture system. After the copyright notice, the lecture will play an unskippable thirty-second-long advert. Students are advised that Adblockers will not work on campus, if connected to UniWireless.”
The Vice-Chancellor proceeded to thank BetterHelp, the leading telehealth psychologist appointment app for sponsoring the preliminary trial.
Several students we spoke to assumed the email was a spoof or a prank and were shocked to discover it was legitimate.
“Unbelievable. First they make us sign the new WiFi rules or whatever, and now they are making us watch ads? I didn’t incur HECS debt to watch ads at uni,” one student said.
An informant from the University administration, who has requested anonymity, shared that the decision was a result of rising costs, citing tariffs impacting weapons manufacturing research and a need to increase the Vice-Chancellor’s salary to $1.88 million from its current $1.5 million, because of “angel numbers”.
This news comes after the announcement of the closure of prestigious literary magazine, Meanjin, prompting speculation regarding the University’s finances. As one online commenter incredulously marvels, “The uni can shut down Meanjin but not divest from Ishreel? Wow.” This netizen isn’t alone in their outrage regarding the magazine’s shuttering , with an open letter circulating among the University community which requests Johnston receive a voluntary 10 per cent pay cut to continue funding the magazine.
Instead, Johnston’s pay increase, funded by these advertisements, will increase her salary by a whopping 25 per cent; enough to fund the degrees of two international students!
At the forefront of tertiary sector privatisation, UniMelb will be trailing the sponsors during SWOT Vac for profit maximisation. The data collected from this trail period, if positive, may see other Australian universities into following suit. However, Farrago’s analyst notes that with a demographic of only 53,000 students, even if a 90 per cent click rate were achieved, it would be unlikely for the trial to prove profitable for BetterHelp.
When Farrago reached out for comment, the University suggested that they were looking into getting sponsors related to national interests, such as the Australian Defence Force (ADF). They declined to respond to our other queries regarding the closure of Meanjin or the online backlash they have received following the announcement.