University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence has wage cut as he seeks job losses

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence has at last trimmed his $1.6m salary to help out his beleaguered university.

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence. Picture: Britta Campion

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence has at last trimmed his $1.6m salary to help out his beleaguered university, saying on Tuesday he would forego 20 per cent of income this year even as he announced a ­voluntary redundancy scheme to cut jobs.

In an email to staff, Dr Spence said the impact of continuing travel restrictions on inter­national student arrivals meant the university had been forced to revise its budget projections downwards.

He said the university now expected only 65 per cent of the expected number of commencing international students would enrol at the university in first semester next year.

“Our previous projections for semester 1, 2021, were based on a return to our usual enrolment levels, on the expectation that the COVID-19 pandemic was a one-off event. It has become clear this is unrealistic, given ongoing COVID-19 impacts and, in particular, continuing restrictions on international travel,” he said.

Dr Spence, who will leave at the end of the year to become vice-chancellor of University College London, said the reduced number of international student arrivals would affect the university’s budget for the next three to four years: “Although I remain optimistic, we must take seriously our responsibility to safeguard the university’s financial position for the future.”

All members of the university executive — including deputy vice-chancellors, vice-principals, executive deans and deans — had agreed to a 20 per cent salary reduction for this year, Dr Spence said. Two others, apart from him, also earned more than $1m in 2019.

Dr Spence is the last of the big four university leaders in Australia to volunteer a salary cut because of the COVID-19 crisis. The vice-chancellors of UNSW, Monash and the University of Melbourne did so months ago.

Dr Spence said the university had not chosen a target for the number of voluntary redundancies it was seeking.

“Any resulting salary savings this program might provide will assist the university in managing ongoing costs and mitigate against a decline in student revenue, and help better prepare us for uncertainties in the future,” he said.

“They may also allow us to ease some of the savings constraints impacting critical areas such as research, student support and the hiring freeze.”

Redundancies will be offered to permanent staff and those on fixed-term contracts with at least six months to run. The university expects staff accepting redundancy to leave towards the end of this year and into 2021.

Last month, it was revealed that the University of Sydney was examining scenarios to cut staff by 10 per cent, 20 per cent or 30 per cent, depending on the ­severity of the budget crisis as it unfolded.