For years, Australian universities have been criticised for adapting a corporate-like business model that prioritises profits over education. The COVID-19 Pandemic seemed to further validate these claims, where educational institutions made numerous budget cuts to university funding, resulting in one of five university staff being made redundant. While most universities claim the cuts were to prepare for the economic decline of the pandemic, some viewed that as their excuse to further increase the profits of a select few. Among the skeptics were members of the National Tertiary Education Union, who took to the grounds of the USYD to protest against these cuts and demand better wages and working conditions to alleviate their increasing workloads. We were joined by Associate Professor Catherine Sutton-Brady, a marketing lecturer at USYD and an NTEU branch member, to discuss COVID’s impact in the decision of these budget cuts and the future of the tertiary teaching industry.