Victoria’s only wholly regional-based university, Federation University, will slash the number of academic schools by half and offer redundancies to all permanent staff as part of a high-risk full restructure.
The University has also announced multiple Dean positions will be made redundant, to be replaced by ‘CEOs’ of ‘Employment and Start-Up Centres’.
NTEU Federation University Branch President Dr Mathew Abbott said it’s clear the corporatisation of Australian universities is in full swing and regional Victoria is set to suffer as a result.
“We’re extremely concerned about the impact of cuts on staff and the quality of regional education,” said Dr Abbott.
“Our university’s programs have already been cut to the bone, including a third of humanities staff who are being made redundant.
“This includes a full Professor of History at Gippsland, the only senior historian on campus and serving that area.
“This disgraceful proposal is also likely to impact on the level of support available to students with professional and support staff to face further cuts and ongoing uncertainty about their roles.
“Changes to management structures need to be invested in teaching capacity and high quality face-to-face learning.
“Instead, the proposal includes University-wide redundancies at teaching level, which will likely exacerbate existing problems and alienate students even further.
“Further, there is no evidence that a wholesale adoption of an industry sponsored approach has been rigorously market tested amongst employers, students, careers counsellors, and parents.
“‘Business start up’ experimentation is old. It has been going on for two decades now and has not bore fruit – Ballarat is not the technophile or Silicon Valley phenomenon that was once promised.
“It’s a high risk strategy that could do irreparable damage to education in the regions.”
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said regional Victorians deserve better.
“These cuts only add to the wholesale job destruction at Australian universities,” said Dr Barnes.
“It comes after a year where 35,000 workers at public universities lost their jobs.
“The Federal Government has allowed our sector to be smashed and regional Victorians will be worse off.
“From the proposal, it is unclear whether this is a cosmetic rebranding or an attempt to change the way tertiary education is delivered at Federation University.
“The consequence of job losses is increased workloads and less support for staff and students.
“Redundancies will remove talent and work capacity, making it even harder for staff who are already struggling under the immense weight of unmanageable workloads.”
