On a quiet Wednesday night in Adelaide recently about 50 people met in a church hall to share concerns about the militarisation of their schools and universities.

A small group of activists — students, academics, school teachers and unionists — had organised the forum.

Jacob Grant, from Students for Palestine at Adelaide University, explained they believed a university should be a place to sturdy, examine and freely critique the way the world works from a humanitarian value base. What they found instead is an alarming campus culture of preparation for war, driven largely by the involvement of armaments companies and their money. The same level of new funding is not being extended to other areas such as the climate crisis or health care.

A student meeting of more than 200 called on the University of Adelaide to completely divest from weapons companies. The University also launched disciplinary action against students and banned members of the public from entering the campus to support the students demands, including an encampment in support of Gaza.

Christine O’Brien, from Teachers and School Staff for Palestine and their sub group: Weapons Out of School, reported that LeFevre High School, in partnership with BAE Weapons Systems, had been making parts for the Australian Navy since 2017. Maritime high school programs in engineering are run in conjunction with the Australian Submarine Corporation and BAE Weapons Systems. Findon Technical College has students doing school-based apprenticeships at Osborne in conjunction with BAE. Premier Malinauskus has said graduating students will be guaranteed a job with BAE. The SA Government is providing $30 million to support defence corporations at Mawson Lakes including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, BAE, General Dynamics and L3 Harris. Most of these companies run STEM education programs in schools often presented as cool groovy tech. Christine noted that in most states, education department policy limits armaments companies from sponsoring or presenting programs in schools – just like tobacco and alcohol companies. In WA and SA, the states directly involved in AUKUS, no such restrictions apply.

Professor Fran Baum, from the P_eoples Health Movement_, Academics for Palestine and the University of Adelaide, warned of an emerging and thriving powerful military industrial academic complex. The SA Government Defence State website talks about government, industry and academia meeting the challenges of a growing defence agenda. The Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator aims are very clear: university partnerships for military purposes. US Defence Department funding to Australian universities has gone from $1.7 million in 2007 to $60 million in 2022. University governance has become corporatised. Council membership of the merging Adelaide University has no elected staff or students, but is replete with industry CEOs, former politicians, financial accountants, and lawyers. Apart from the two vice-chancellors and one unelected academic, none have any significant experience in tertiary education or research. Baum pointed out that the military corporations our universities are seeking to build partnerships with come with shameful histories of corruption and deceit: India has filed graft cases against BAE, Boeing has a formidable history of scandals. Raytheon has had multiple bribery cases including a fine of $90 million, while Lockheed Martin has been accused of human rights abuses, bribery and lobbying.

Staff within universities will not speak out for fear of reprisal in an increasingly precarious employment environment. The ethical issues of enmeshment with weapons corporations are eroding public trust in universities. We are tying our educational system to companies whose purpose is to wage war and the militarisation of universities makes war more likely. Universities should be about fostering free intellectual critique and building for peace, not preparing for war.

Dr Amanda Ruler, of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, pointed out that what was once the festival state is now proclaiming itself as the defence state. The March 2025 Commonwealth SA Defence Workforce Report Action plan announced funding for an additional 1000 places at SA universities and 2000 additional tech scholarships for students undertaking STEM degrees. This is in the context of a federal funding decline of 46% from 1995 to 2021. Universities are increasingly reliant on the defence industry and international students. The University of Adelaide has a dedicated Defence and Security Institute which has an MOU with Babcock Australia, funding from BAE and Lockheed Martin and scholarships with Boeing. There is a vast disparity in the costs to students of defence-related university courses compared to other areas of study, such as law, humanities, communications or medicine. Defence-related course fee costs are generally one half to one third. For masters programs in AI, computer science, cyber security and maritime engineering, the Commonwealth subsidises fees by about 75% compared to other engineering programs.

Adjunct Professor Al Rainnie reminded us of the claims by federal ministers that AUKUS will be a huge boost to employment and an enormous new industrial era for SA. With so many unanswered obstacles, these claims are essentially lies. But the real crime is that this fraudulent illusion of mythical submarines distracts from real opportunities for industrial innovation and growth. Prof Rainnie highlighted four of these. Currently, used solar panels go to landfill when a recycling industry could reclaim valuable minerals. Making green steel is a lot more feasible if old steel structures can be used to provide input material. There is a wealth of this in offshore oil and gas rigs requiring decommissioning. The growth in EVs and lithium batteries means there will be a need to recycle used lithium batteries, surely an area for future growth we ignore at our peril. South Australia is a major food producer, but, just as we do with minerals, we grow and export unprocessed food, such as grains and pulses. These are then processed overseas into plant-based foods and sold back to us in our supermarkets. SA could instead be a major player in the growing plant-based protein foods sector. There are all opportunities to build a prosperous future economy based on education and training building jobs for life, not jobs for death.

Perhaps what is most alarming is that these profound changes in our education system — and by association our culture, our values, our economy and our future society — are happening silently, without public debate or reflection. We call on the SA Government to institute such widespread public debate in the run-up to the next state election due in early 2026. Is SA a defence state or a peace state?

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.