Coronavirus: Fears for thousands of casual teacher jobs at universities

The national academic union has called on vice-chancellors to guarantee the income of tens of thousands of casual teachers.

Alison Barnes says the union had heard reports of contracts not being ­issued to casual staff since the travel ban was announced and universities delaying offers of work. Picture: James Croucher

The national academic union has called on vice-chancellors to guarantee the income of tens of thousands of casual university teachers amid fears they will lose their jobs as student numbers fall due to the coronavirus travel ban.

Nearly a quarter of the academic workforce — particularly those in low-paid junior roles — is casual, which means their employment is vulnerable to changes in student numbers.

Nearly 100,000 Chinese students who planned to be studying at Australian universities this year have been stranded by the travel ban, which has now been extended until at least February 22.

“We’ve written to university vice-chancellors, asking them to commit that those casuals who would normally be working from day 1 of semester will not be worse off as a result of timetable changes due to coronavirus,” the national president of the National Tertiary Education Union, Alison Barnes, said on Friday.

She said the union had heard reports of contracts not being ­issued to casual staff since the travel ban was announced and universities delaying offers of work.

The University of Sydney, which has 14,000 students trapped in China, said on Friday it was not ready to discuss the financial cost of the travel ban or the impact on casual staff numbers.

“It would be premature to comment on any numbers or financial implications until we have a clearer idea of how this will all unfold,” the university said.

The University of Melbourne, which also has a large number of Chinese students, said it was ­exploring “a range of options to maximise the flexibility of our teaching programs with minimum disruption to our students and ­employees, including our valued casual workforce”.

The federal government reached out to Chinese students on Friday by ending the restriction on issuing new student visas that has applied since February 1, when the travel ban was imposed on entry from China, except for Australian citizens and permanent residents.

As exclusively reported in The Australian, the Department of Home Affairs had decided to process, but not issue, new student visas in China, causing alarm among Chinese students.

Education Minister Dan Tehan said on Friday that the national ­security committee of cabinet had decided to resume issuing visas in anticipation of the travel ban eventually being lifted.

“This is once again a signal from Australia saying we want to see all those international students from China return once the travel advisory is lifted,” Mr Tehan said.

The International Education Association of Australia welcomed the move. “The sector greatly appreciates the support provided by Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge and Education Minister Dan Tehan to ­ensure common sense prevailed,” association chief executive Phil Honeywood said.

Some universities have accepted that their students still in China will not be able to study in this year’s first teaching period.

The University of Canberra said on Friday it had asked its 380 students still in China to defer their studies. Earlier in the week, UNSW vice-chancellor Ian Jacobs said the chance of his institution’s 10,000 students in China arriving for term 1 were “very small”.

The Australian National University said it was pushing ahead with offering remote study to its estimated 4000 students in China and that more than 600 courses would be available to them.