University staff representatives have delivered a scathing assessment of governing bodies in the tertiary sector, saying there's a toxic culture and they are often ignored.
Almost two in three representatives described their governance body's culture as very negative and only one in five said they had confidence in their board's ability to fix governance issues, a survey by the National Tertiary Education Union found.
Almost 60 per cent said they felt their input had no real impact on decisions, which they said felt pre-determined, the survey found.
The survey covered about 20 of 81 publicly listed student representatives on university boards nationally, with respondents from 12 universities.
More than 70 per cent of respondents said they couldn't report information back to staff members despite being their elected representatives and 90 per cent said agendas and minutes of meetings were not publicly available.
More than 40 per cent of staff representatives were not being paid for additional duties, even though their seat on a governing board came with an extra workload, the union found.
Of those that received compensation, only one in five was financial.
Staff representatives also reported not feeling prepared enough to tackle an emerging issue and failing to be given necessary information, with half saying "their contributions were at best tolerated and at worst actively discouraged or ignored".
The union accused the boards of "a toxic culture that shuts out dissent, tolerates bullying and fails even basic standards of transparency".
National president Alison Barnes called for reform, saying the findings proved the system was broken as decisions were being made behind closed doors by people disconnected from everyday staff and students.
"Governance reform isn't optional - it's essential to allow our public universities to pursue their core teaching and research functions and ensure they act as a public good," Dr Barnes said.
"Governments, regulators and university leaders must act now to restore transparency, accountability and trust in our higher education system."
The union is calling for at least half of university boards to be elected rather than appointed and for a majority of members to have experience in the public sector.
