TO rhythmic chants of “Bullsh*t, come off it, out education’s not-for-profit,” a large crowd of students descended upon the chancellery of ANU at lunchtime today after a rally organised by a student action group to protest proposed changes that would see tutorials in the University’s College of Arts and Social Sciences replaced by larger forums.

A spokeswoman from the student action group, Geraldine Fela, criticised a “bloated executive”, telling them, “This is not a business, this is a university.”

“The ANU crisis is a fiction,” Stephen Darwin from the National Tertiary Education Union told the assembled crowd, arguing that with a $53 million surplus last year, cuts to the university’s the College of Arts and Social Sciences were not about research or high-quality education, but about an underlying agenda to achieve a 5 per cent cut across-the-board.

He charged that the Vice Chancellor Prof Ian Young, whose salary at $800,000 a year was double that of the Prime Minister, had used Orwellian tactics to justify cuts as improved educational techniques, and had stretched credibility by telling students several days ago that he had no idea tutorials were under attack.

“It’s back to 1984,” Darwin said, urging senior academic staff at the university to stand up to the Vice Chancellor and show “a bit of spine”.