How Business-Like Operations Shape Student Union Values and Accountability: Accounts of Publicness and Privateness Discourse in Universities

This study explores how business-like operational models in public universities transform university student unions’ core values and accountability discourse. It builds on a publicness theory and an open-ended interview-based field study conducted in three student union bodies in Australia. Findings reveal a significant transformation in core (public) value(s) and accountability practices in university student unions over time. Implementing business-like (privateness) models in public universities drove this transformational change. Contrary to expectations, student unions lost their public identity (publicness values) as a social service provider to its members while satisfying their corporate university stakeholders as a subunit through business-like (privateness) accountability practices such as budgeting. These findings offer insight into how the commercialized operational model forces universities to use competing dimensions of organizational publicness (public values and privateness) when managing student unions through business-like accountability mechanisms.