The continuing saga of #University mismanagement now focuses on the #UniverstityOfWollongong with allegations of #cronyism and favoured #consultancies.

“The corruption watchdog has confirmed three main areas it will probe, including whether the university's chief governance officer and secretary, Alyssa White, or any other staff subverted recruitment processes for governance roles.

The commission will also examine whether, since 2024, Chancellor Michael Still, Ms White, or any other staff improperly awarded or influenced the awarding of work to a consultancy company, Aspirall Consulting International.” (Source: ABC News)

#Managerialism #NeoLiberalism #UniversityCouncils #Mismanagement #Corruption #TertiarySector #UoW #AusPol #GovernanceFails

Read more:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-02/icac-to-investigate-university-of-wollongong-allegations/106750100

“There are two common narratives about McKinsey. The first imagines the firm as some sort of hallowed place where future leaders go to test their mettle and learn the ways of the Force. Books like The McKinsey Way and The Lords of Strategy depict McKinsey consultants as heroes who rescue moribund businesses. The second narrative depicts McKinsey as a villain, driven primarily by greed. In their 2022 book When McKinsey Comes to Town, the journalists Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe made the case that the firm is to blame for—or at least complicit in—all sorts of modern-day evils: skyrocketing CEO pay, the Great Recession, the opioid crisis, the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, China’s surveillance state, even the Houston Astros’ cheating scandal.

The truth is that McKinsey is a quintessential institution of the post-World War II era. As such, the firm reflects all the successes of that era, as well as its blind spots, moral failings, and excesses. McKinsey was a key contributor to—and beneficiary of—the economic forces of globalization and financialization, trends that raised living standards around the world. But those same trends have been culturally destructive and politically destabilizing, which is why they are now often seen in a negative light by many on both the right and the left.“

https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-mckinsey-century/

#McKinsey #Consultancies #Globalization #Neoliberalism

‘New controls on the use of #Consultancies across #Government are being brought in to cut unnecessary spending and save £1.2 billion by 2026 …’

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-controls-across-government-to-curb-consultancy-spend-and-save-over-12-billion-by-2026

Join the IKOM #Consulting Day on May 23 to get to know four innovative #consultancies in a relaxed atmosphere, while solving captivating case studies with other students and getting valuable advice for your application: http://go.tum.de/896661

#students #careeradvice

📷IKOM

#EU ‘#ForeignAgents’ law spooks #NGOs – #POLITICO

"#BRUSSELS — The #EuropeanUnion is working on a #law that would force #nongovernmental groups, #consultancies and #academic #institutions to disclose any non-EU funding as part of a crackdown on #ForeignInfluence in the #bloc, three sources confirmed to POLITICO.
The planned #legislation, which is in very early stages, echoes similar laws in #Australia and the #UnitedStates. In the #US, the #ForeignAgentsRegistrationAct has required #lobbyists working on behalf of foreign governments to register with the federal government since 1938."

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-ursula-von-der-leyen-ngo-qatargate-foreign-agents-law-disturbs-ngos/

A new book on the big consultancy firms finds that they are poor value, often have conflicts of interest, have distorted the economy, and hollowed out the state.

“To build a better-functioning economy, we must invest in state capacity and know-how, bring public purpose back to the public sector and rid the system of costly, unnecessary, consulting-industry intermediation.”
#consultancies #statecapacity

https://www.socialeurope.eu/consultants-and-the-crisis-of-capitalism

#Economics #Management #Consultancies: “The Big Con of the book’s title is not a crime; it’s a confidence trick. Consultancies and outsourcers, Mazzucato argues, know less than they claim, cost more than they seem to, and — over the long term — prevent the public sector developing in-house capabilities. “We’re not against consultants. The problem is when an industry [has] no incentive to get government to be independent. A therapist who has their client in therapy forever obviously isn’t a very good therapist.” Consultants are not “neutral” about the role of the state, either, Mazzucato argues, citing their private sector work. They promoted slimming the state after 2008.”

https://www.ft.com/content/fb1254dd-a011-44cc-bde9-a434e5a09fb4