This paper engages with current debate on the role of the university following COVID-19, exposing the ongoing corruption of traditional values of the tertiary sector, and the shift in teaching and learning expectations across the academy. It highlights the negative impact of the huge decline in government funding since the 1990s, salary inequity, ongoing job loss and decline in teaching and learning conditions within universities, alongside proven wage theft and exploitation of sessional and casual staff. Government neglect of the higher education sector is obvious in its refusal to support any university staff through JobKeeper funding. These issues, together with an ongoing public apathy towards the education sector, have demoralised, disenfranchised and fragmented this vital knowledge-rich professional cohort. The critique argues that government funding to the tertiary sector must be increased to positively incentivise and restore the role of the public university in a democratic society. There should be a clear recalibration of higher education within the public sector. Staff need to work together across disciplines and hierarchies to address proven dysfunctional practices within the academy with a strong, united voice. It advances some recommendations to recapture the spirit of the once idealistic university mission, while also addressing the many-stranded, utilitarian functions that are demanded in a complex, changing landscape.