Text of the letter sent to the Vice Chancellor, David Robinson
11 September 1998

Dear Professor Robinson,

Farewell Monash University. I have finally decided that I cannot continue to be associated with the type of institution Monash has become. All of the aims and ideals that were embodied in the original vision of this university have been thoroughly engulfed by the business mentality which you have imposed strongly on this place. Education should not be about profit or popularity, for as I once said we should strive to “seek knowledge in all directions for its own sake.” But under the new vision for Monash outlined in The Monash Plan that glorious ideal will no longer be possible. 

From Ancora Imparo, I am still learning, Monash University has changed its motto to Ancora Dependo, I am still paying up. Students are made to pay through ever-higher charges because higher education is seen as solely an individual benefit delivering better job prospects. Staff are made to pay through job losses, the ever-increasing need to justify the instrumental worth of courses, the endless search for funding, and the iron grip of management. Universities are made to pay through ever-smaller operating grants from the federal government and the relentless pressure to deliver more and more students with less and less money. With this situation, and with no end to it in sight, I can no longer bear to see my name used as a facade. I will not be used as a justification for the destruction of decent higher education.

Thus I must depart this institution, which has become a gross insult to my name, and I will not return unless a number of conditions are met. I will submit my full list of conditions when I am in a more amenable environment, but for the moment I will list a few important demands:

•	That you, David Robinson, resign immediately from the positions of Vice Chancellor and President of Monash University.
•	The immediate resignation of Deputy Vice Chancellor Alan Lindsay, Deputy Vice Chancellor Peter Darvall, and General Manager Peter Wade.
•	The restitution by the federal government of full funding to universities.
•	No further job losses.
•	The restoration of funding to the faculties of Science and Arts and the scrapping of the restructuring models.

If these initial conditions are not met then I will not return to Monash, and I would also request that the name of the university be changed to omit any reference to myself.

Yours,

(Sir) John Monash