‘Great uncertainty’: Sydney Uni warns staff of cuts ahead of foreign student caps

The University of Sydney’s vice chancellor has warned staff of hiring freezes and other cutbacks as the institution prepares for “financial shortfalls” from the loss of international students.

Australian universities and colleges are waiting to be told the limits on international student enrolments that would be imposed under proposed legislation currently before federal parliament.

Sydney University vice chancellor Mark Scott.Credit: Janie Barrett

Institutions say uncertainty about the scope of the student caps, due to come into effect in January, has put tens of thousands of international student enrolments in jeopardy and made it impossible to plan for the year ahead.

Sydney University vice chancellor Mark Scott wrote to staff on Tuesday warning that the institution was considering how it would deal with the financial shortfalls a reduction in international students would bring.

“The university executive will therefore be reconsidering what is most critical for us to proceed with to set the foundation for future success, and what activity should be paused in a revenue-constrained environment,” he wrote.

The note to staff said, as a first step, executive members would closely monitor recruitment and contract extensions in their area.

Scott said management would consider whether to extend contracts on a “case-by-case basis” or wait until there was greater clarity on how many international students it could accept in 2025.

Sydney University is the largest educator of international students in the country and has come to heavily rely on their fee income to prop up research and teaching.

Foreign students provided 78 per cent of the university’s student revenue last year and now make up about 47 per cent of the university’s cohort after it rapidly increased enrolments over the past decade.

Education Minister Jason Clare said the caps would ensure the sector retained its “social licence” to operate and promised details about the scope of the proposed limits this month.

International students have become central to Labor’s plan to slash net migration from 520,000 in 2023 to 260,000 by June next year.

The bill to cap international students, introduced to parliament in May, was a significant escalation of the government’s bid to reduce foreign enrolments, which rebounded strongly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scott’s message to staff said it was important the institution remained “calm and clear-headed in our approach” as it waited for full details about the proposed caps.

He said the university would be reassessing its priorities for 2025, noting the workload for some staff was becoming unsustainable.

“The work required by our strategic activities, in addition to the relentlessly expanding series of compliance requirements imposed on us by government, on top of our core business of delivering outstanding education and research, is becoming overwhelming for many colleagues,” Scott said.

National Tertiary Education Union Sydney University branch president Nick Riemer said Scott’s message gave every appearance of being an excuse to cut jobs.

“It’s obvious from the vice chancellor’s message that it will be the more precariously employed staff that the axe falls on first, as is always the way,” he said.

“If our vice chancellor is serious about wanting to put his institution on a more sound ground financially, he first needs to be trimming at the top.”

Riemer said he was concerned about the collapse in government funding which had led to a reliance on foreign student fees, and said university leaders had failed to defend the sector over many decades.

Victoria University’s associate Professor Peter Hurley said the government could reduce net migration without cutting international student numbers.

“I think the thing that is missed in all of this is that caps do not have to be cuts,” he said.

“They could meet their targets just by slowing the growth.”

A spokesperson for Sydney University said, without detail on the scope of the proposed caps, the institution needed to “take some precautionary measures in order to safeguard our institution and community”.

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