Love match or shotgun wedding? The bigger, but not necessarily better, world of university mergers

Ed Nauseam · Nov 5, 2026 · 33m

Can bigger guarantee better? Julie Hare and Ant Bagshaw take on university mergers. In Perth, a Deloitte report says combining UWA, Curtin and Murdoch could return up to $8 billion. But why would the same parts, rearranged, be worth billions more?

Over in South Australia, Adelaide University is nearly a year old, and staff and students are paying for changing the curriculum, the systems and the brand all at once. Meanwhile the international student market that held up the business case has turned.

Then to the UK, where Greenwich is taking over Kent and King’s is merging with Cranfield…