Adelaide University eases and delays cuts but jobs will still go

More jobs are set to go at Adelaide Uni as the lucrative foreign student market stays frozen. But, not quite as many jobs as first feared.

Adelaide University will cut fewer administrative jobs than earlier feared and will delay a decision on how many academic posts must go, staff were told on Wednesday night.

The uni had announced it needed to cut 130 professional staff and an unspecified number of academics.

After three months of consultation, it has revised the cut down to 104 and said academic jobs will be subjected to “a separate body of work to be considered in 2022”.

University of Adelaide vice-chancellor Peter Hoj. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

The loss of international students because of Covid-19 travel restrictions and the absence of federal government wage support has left the uni facing a $22m shortfall on budget in 2022, growing to $43m a year from 2023 onwards.

“We would rather not propose these measures and do so with regret, but we judge them necessary to ensure our university can face the challenges before it and emerge a stronger and more sustainable institution – for the benefit of our community and the state,” vice-chancellor Peter Hoj said.

“The quality of students’ experience at the university and the education they receive are among our top priorities.

“The measures we’re proposing are unlikely to impact on our students’ current studies, and we are committed to ensuring students can complete their current degrees without disruption.”

The uni aims to save $30m a year and generate $20m from new revenue sources to cover the shortfalls.

In 2020, the uni made a $47m surplus on revenue of $972m, but most of the surplus related to tied research funding.

It employs about 3900 people, full-time equivalent.

The uni proposes reducing its faculties from five to three, and centralising professional support services.

This restructure would create new roles in the centralised structure, resulting in the fewer job overall cut of jobs.

Staff have 17 days for further consultation before the uni moves to finalise its plans by early next year.