Former BHP chairman Jerry Ellis was more outspoken than anyone could have believed when he said his farewell as chancellor of Monash University to senior academics this week. After being heaped with praise by vice-chancellor Professor Richard Larkins for his work as the titular head of the university for the past eight years, Ellis did not respond in kind.

On the contrary, to the astonishment of the assembled throng, the tough businessman – a Rhodes scholar who earned a first-class honours degree from Oxford 40 years ago – turned on Larkins and declared the council that he, Ellis, had chaired since 1999 was dysfunctional, that there were far too many meetings, and basically that all was not well with the administration of Australia’s biggest university.

Earlier this month, Ellis was formally farewelled at the annual end of year celebration for Monash council members. On that occasion, Larkins said Ellis had been a valuable mentor and had made an enormous contribution to Monash’s success.

“On the one hand, Mr Ellis took an intense interest in the progress of the university and took regular soundings from deans and other staff,” Larkins said.

“When he found problems he brought them to my attention, recognising the role of governance compared with management. I always appreciated his advice and support.”

Deputy chancellor Paul Ramler also said it was a privilege to have worked with Ellis over the past eight years and noted that he had presided over 275 ceremonies – “which equates to around 110,000 hand shakes”.

That may have explained Ellis’ last painful speech in which he made no mention of some singular events during his time at Monash, including the opening of the new Monash South Africa campus in Johannesburg in his first year in 1999 – a campus that quickly became a financial black hole and has soaked up tens of millions of Monash dollars.

Ellis was also present at the opening of an 18th century Tuscan palace for a research and teaching centre in Prato, Italy, which Monash took over the same year.

Later, he was involved in negotiations with the State government to secure the Australian Synchrotron – another hugely expensive exercise – and the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute which Monash claims will be one of the largest stem-cell research centres in the world.

What no-one mentioned at the farewells, however, was possibly the most spectacular event of all during the time Ellis was at the university: the sudden resignation in July, 2002, of former vice-chancellor David Robinson who was forced to quit after it was revealed he had plagiarised material for books that he had published in Britain 20 years before.

Ellis initially backed Robinson but as more evidence began to appear revealing the vice-chancellor had been a serial plagiarist, the chancellor told his chief executive it was time to go. Robinson went quietly but he also took another $1 million of Monash’s money with him.