University of Sydney jobs on line as students shut out

The University of Sydney is considering cutting thousands of jobs next year if international students are unable to return.

The University of Sydney.

The University of Sydney is considering cutting thousands of jobs next year if international students are unable to return to Australia and its massive revenue losses continue into 2021.

All areas of the university 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.

In an email sent on Wednesday the head of the university’s School of Education and Social Work, Deb Hayes, said she had been asked by arts and social sciences dean Annamarie Jagose to propose “how we might restructure to reduce by up to 30 per cent FTE (full-time equivalent jobs) while also setting ourselves up well to ­remain a leading arts and social sciences faculty beyond these difficult global pandemic conditions”.

But the request to prepare plans for possible major cuts in the university goes beyond the arts and social sciences faculty.

“We’ve heard from staff at the University of Sydney that heads of all academic and general staff areas are being asked to put forward proposal for cuts of 10, 20 and 30 per cent of their staffing budgets,” said Damien Cahill, assistant NSW secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union.

The University of Sydney has a workforce of about 9000 full-time equivalent jobs, and a 30 per cent cut would slash 2700. But many more people would be affected ­because the university employs many part-time and casual workers.

The university said it was looking at a “range of different scenarios” to deal with the pandemic’s financial impact.

“These are scenarios that may never eventuate,” the university said on Thursday.

“We think it’s too early to predict what will happen in 2021 and if we have to move to measures that will affect our staff we want to be more certain about the numbers.”

Vice-chancellor ­Michael Spence is increasingly concerned that Australia’s borders could still be closed next year and international students will be unable to enter the country.

Dr Spence told staff last week in an email that it looked “increasingly likely that our international student enrolments for Semester 1 2021 will not return to pre-COVID levels as we had all originally hoped”.

“This means that we must now look closely at our projections for 2021 and revise our revenue forecast downwards,” he said.

“We are gathering as much ­information as possible for our scenario planning and exploring options on ways to address the ­expected revenue shortfall for next year.”

So far the University of Sydney has avoided forced job losses or ­redundancies, but has implemented tough savings measures to help it deal with this year’s $470m budget shortfall.

In her email, Professor Hayes suggested that one way to achieve a 20 per cent cut scenario for academics in the School of Education and Social Work would be to take one day’s leave without pay each week.

Dr Cahill called on the university to “open its books and disclose its true financial position”.

“The University of Sydney is a wealthy institution with extensive reserves. The university management needs to meet with staff to discuss alternatives to job cuts,” he said.

In response, the university said that “whatever happens, staff will be consulted first and normal change processes will apply”.

Other universities are also preparing for scenarios in which revenue losses grow next year because international students can’t return. This week Macquarie University said it expected a $70m revenue shortfall this year, growing to $150m next year and close to $200m in 2022.