Universities have announced sweeping job losses in a cost-cutting purge
Universities have announced nearly 3600 job cuts across Australia as executives continue to earn million-dollar salaries and operating surpluses persist.
Cost-cutting universities are sacking 3578 staff nationally, new data reveals, as one “tone-deaf’’ university suggested staff “wash delicates’’ to deal with the stress of redundancy.
The National Tertiary Education Union has calculated that 18 universities have announced 3578 job cuts since last year.
It estimates 1114 looming cuts at the Australian National University, 400 at both Western Sydney University and the University of Technology Sydney, 272 at the University of Southern Queensland, 276 at the University of Wollongong and 200 at the University of Canberra.
The cuts would account for 2.5 per cent of academic, research and administrative jobs in the sector.
An ANU spokeswoman dismissed the union’s estimate as “nowhere near accurate’’, saying that “since the Renew ANU process began last year, approximately 135 people have left the university through a Voluntary Separation Scheme. Currently, 83 people have been made redundant through a range of change plans.’’
NTEU president Alison Barnes said the job losses were “completely unjustified’’ in almost every case. “No consideration is given to the enormous damage this does to the institutions, the colleagues that are left behind and the student experience,’’ she said.
“We’ve seen vice-chancellors blame international student changes, despite enrolments not going backwards anywhere.
“Almost every university is in operating surplus. “Meanwhile, there’s 300 executives earning more than their state premier, and vice-chancellors taking home an average of $1m a year.’’
UTS, which has previously announced it will cut as many as 400 jobs to save $100m, announced on Thursday that it would suspend new enrolments for 120 courses.
UTS sent staff a link to an external “wellbeing hub” that suggested they deal with stress by “washing delicates’’, baking a dessert, staging a tea ceremony or sifting through their tax receipts.
Dr Barnes said UTS staff were in shock and the wellbeing advice “added insult to injury’’.
“It’s disgraceful that staff already facing the trauma of threatened job losses and course suspensions are being told to ‘wash delicates’ or ‘bake a dessert’ while their livelihoods hang in the balance,’’ she said.
“This tone-deaf trivialisation of job cuts is another shocking example of Australia’s broken university governance system.’’
UTS vice-chancellor and president Andrew Parfitt announced on Thursday that new enrolments would be suspended for 120 low-demand courses.
Students who are not already enrolled will not be able to study the 120 the courses across faculties including business, law, engineering and IT, health and science.
A UTS spokeswoman said on Friday that more than half the courses had no students currently enrolled, while 50 courses had only 25 students or less. She said 54 suspended courses related to the Bachelor of International Studies.
UTS on Friday deleted the “self-care’’ suggestions.
“When presented out of context, the quoted advice on embedding self-care in a daily routine was not appropriate, and based on feedback from staff the article has been removed,’’ UTS said in a statement.
“We believe the wide range of support resources and options provided, which included personalised support through counselling services, are necessary and appropriate given the diversity of our staff and student community.’’
The UTS cuts come as the beleaguered ANU revealed it would save $1.4m a year in salary costs through voluntary redundancies that the NTEU says will cost 1113 jobs.
The ANU released a draft “psychosocial risk assessment’’ that outlines the potential impacts of its restructuring on staff wellbeing.
The “hazards’’ include job insecurity, higher job demands, lack of role clarity, poor support, poor organisational change management and conflict between colleagues, clients and students.
The workplace health and safety assessments says the university should give clear and detailed communication and consultation about job cuts, set realistic job expectations for remaining staff, clearly communicate job roles and provide support services to staff.
The 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities, issued by the University of Shanghai in China on Friday, places the University of Melbourne at the top of the list in Australia, and 38th in the world.
Second-best is the University of Queensland, ranked 65th in the world. The University of Sydney comes third in Australia, and is ranked at 72 in the world. Monash University, fourth in Australia, is ranked 76th in the world while the University of NSW is ranked 80th.
The top five academic institutions worldwide are Harvard, Stanford and Massachusetts universities in the US, Cambridge University in the UK, and the University of California in the US.
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