Firing to hiring: universities on hunt for staff

The nation’s top universities are promising to fill hundreds of jobs cut during Covid-19, after letting staff go while boosting expenditure on ­advertising and consultants.

Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson.

The nation’s top universities are promising to fill hundreds of jobs cut during Covid-19, after spending the last year letting staff go while boosting expenditure on ­advertising and consultants by millions of dollars.

The University of NSW, the University of Sydney and Monash University in Melbourne told The Australian they planned to rehire staff after “better than expected” financial results last year.

The Australian examined the financial results and staff cuts at seven universities across the country amid warnings from Education Minister Jason Clare that universities could “do better” in the way they treated staff.

The increased spending on ­advertising and consultants last year, while staff budgets were cut, also comes amid questions about teaching quality at many universities, with The Weekend Australian revealing on Saturday that half of the nation’s student teachers are dropping out of university courses.

Higher education bosses have defended spending decisions and bumper surpluses experienced by many institutions in 2021, and University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott says a renewed push to bump up staffing numbers will improve teaching and ­research.

“Unlike a business, we don’t seek profits or pay out shareholders – all our surplus is reinvested back into the university to support teaching and research, ­including the recruitment of more academic and professional staff,” he said. “Our work has a positive effect across the whole country by addressing the biggest challenges, equipping students from diverse backgrounds with knowledge and skills, and creating new opportunities and jobs.”

Sydney University recorded a surplus of more than $1bn while the University of Melbourne ­recorded a surplus of more than $500m. Monash, UNSW and the University of Queensland reported surpluses of more than $300m.

The University of Western Australia posted an operating ­result of about $203m in total comprehensive income and Curtin University reported a $113m ­result.

The National Tertiary Education Union estimated 40,000 jobs were lost in public tertiary education in the 12 months to May last year. President Alison Barnes said investment in staff in NSW universities had fallen by 10 per cent since 2008 and the rate of ­casualisation was at about 70 per cent across the sector.

“We need university management to step up to the plate and deal with systemic problems that their business models have ­created,” Dr Barnes said.

Mr Clare identified casualisation and the treatment of staff as an issue, arguing that “the way that universities work with their staff is one of the things I want the Universities Accord to look at”.

He said the sector “can do better”, particularly when it came to high rates of casualisation and staff underpayments.

UNSW led the charge on staff cuts last year, with figures revealing 726 fewer full-time-equivalent jobs when compared to the previous year.

At the University of Sydney, the number of academic staff fell from 3743 to 3514 due to voluntary redundancies. Monash’s full-time-equivalent employee numbers fell from 8017 to 7719, while Melbourne University saw 210 staff leave through voluntary redundancies and 168 via involuntary ­redundancies.

Emeritus professor of accounting James Guthrie said universities had over the past decade transformed from public institutions into profit-driven corporations, and criticised soaring vice-chancellor salaries, many of which were in excess of $1m a year.

While reducing staff across 2021, the seven universities were able to pump a combined total of nearly $90m into advertising – a rise of almost $20m on 2020. Only Curtin reduced its advertising spend, from $5.9m to $5.6m.

Universities told The Australian their advertising spend was still below pre-Covid levels and that the rise in spending last year ­reflected the resumption of normal advertising programs to ­recruit both students and staff. Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Group of Eight representing the top eight universities in the country, said international student enrolments were “stronger than expected” but competition for international students around the world remained high, making promotion and marketing “neces­sary to ensure Australia ­remains a destination of choice”.

On consulting fees, UNSW ­increased its spend by more than $28m between 2020 and 2021 while the University of Melbourne’s “contracted and professional services expenses” rose by about $35m. The University of Sydney increased its spent on ­consultants from $19.8m to $21m. Curtin University increased its consultancy fees from $9.8m to $13.5m and spent more than $25.6m on “outsourced work” – which was down slightly from 2020 – with a spokeswoman confirming the expenses covered investment in technology, funding for research activities provided by other institutions, legal fees and other professional services.

However, most universities said they would now begin rehiring staff thanks to their better than expected 2021 financial results.

UNSW said it was aiming to ­increase investment in staff in 2022 by 16 per cent. Monash said its staffing numbers had grown by 4.5 per cent compared to last year and were “projected to slowly grow further by the end of this year”. The University of Sydney said it was “actively recruiting new staff in areas where there is demand and will continue to ­invest in our staff going forward”.

But Frank Larkins, a former deputy vice-chancellor of research at Melbourne University, said universities would likely struggle to refill jobs. “The challenge will be whether universities can rehire high-quality people to cover the breadth of their curriculums,” he said. “University employment is an international profession, and the US and UK have also reported shortfalls, so there’s competition.”