Melbourne’s RMIT is the latest university to shed hundreds of jobs due to COVID

Melbourne’s largest technology university is the latest higher education institution hammered by the pandemic.

Melbourne’s RMIT university is the latest higher education institution hammered by the COVID pandemic. Picture: David Geraghty

Melbourne’s largest technology university will lose more than 350 jobs in the next few months, with RMIT the latest higher education institution hammered by the pandemic.

Voluntary redundancies for 355 full time positions will save RMIT up to $48m, as it faces losing $175m this year alone due to a COVID-19 financial hit and the loss of revenue from foreign students.

RMIT’s job losses come a day after it was revealed Sydney University is considering cutting thousands of positions, and months of universities shedding staff.

An RMIT spokesman told The Australian on Friday that staff who wanted a voluntary payout had now done so.

“From the outset we have sought to provide our people with choices, including a Voluntary Redundancy Program, which closed on 7 August,” he said.

“As a result, we have accepted 355 voluntary redundancy applications that will contribute approximately $48 million to our savings target.

“We recognise that making these personal decisions is never easy and we are grateful to everyone for their contribution to the future of RMIT.”

RMIT’s losses come in the wake of other major Melbourne universities, with the University of Melbourne to lose 450 full-time positions and Monash University to shed 277 jobs.

Other universities are also preparing for scenarios in which revenue losses grow next year because international students can’t return.

All areas of the University of Sydney have been asked to plan scenarios in which jobs are cut by 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 30 per cent next year to deal with the financial crisis.

This week Macquarie University said it expected a $175m revenue shortfall this year, and it is looking to save up to $200m in 2021.

Universities Australia has projected that the higher education sector will lose up to 21,000 jobs in this year alone.

The National Tertiary Education Union’s national president Alison Barnes said the latest cuts strengthened a case for a universities rescue package in October’s federal budget.

“It is devastating to lose 355 jobs from RMIT and it comes on top of many hundreds of casual jobs that have already been slashed,” she said.

“The federal Government is the author of the employment crisis in Australian universities. It has blithely refused to craft a rescue package as the sector confronts its worst ever crisis. It has also bent over backwards to exclude universities from JobKeeper. It is beyond reckless to allow universities to be smashed by this crisis, given the critical role they will play in the post-COVID recovery.”