A newly created body to monitor Australia’s universities has criticised the focus on commercial operations by the country’s tertiary education providers.

The National Student Ombudsman has received 5000 complaints in its first year of operation. A third of complaints were about course administration, 1 9 per cent were about teaching and learning, 19 per cent were about unmet academic requirements, and 13 per cent were due to financial issues.

The Ombudsman, Iain Anderson, criticised the use of gag clauses used when addressing student complaints.

Mr Anderson said universities were too focused on profit.

The criticism come at a time when University of Wollongong (UOW) Vice-Chancellor, Max Lu, was pressed to admit to a NSW parliamentary inquiry that UOW Global Enterprises Chief Executive Marisa Mastroianni was paid $656,000 a year, plus superannuation and a car package, with the potential to receive almost $200,000 more as a performance-based bonus.

UOW has been criticised for its high-cost focus on overseas students, which some commentators have said comes at a cost to the university’s legislative remit to provide education opportunities to the Illawarra region.