Toowoomba’s University of Southern Queensland reveals dozens of lay-offs amid COVID-19 pandemic
Dozens of University of Southern Queensland staff were laid off amid the COVID-19 pandemic, after it was revealed the sector had lost 17,000 jobs as a result of the economic conditions.
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The University of Southern Queensland has not been immune to the massive job losses felt by the tertiary education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, with dozens of people receiving redundancies towards the end of last year.
USQ confirmed it completed a voluntary severance program late last year, which led to 29 lay-offs to go with another 10 redundancies due to organisational changes.
It comes after it was revealed more than 17,000 people lost their jobs at Australian universities, according to new data from Universities Australia.
In total, there were 57 redundancies at USQ across the past two financial years, which encompassed the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A voluntary severance program was held in late 2020, with a focus on enabling the University to reshape its workforce to deliver new degrees which respond to industry and workplace demand,” a spokeswoman for USQ said.
“The university was unable to accept all the applications it received from staff as part of this program.
“USQ’s current workforce headcount, excluding casual staff, is 1,560 employees, compared to 1,566 employees in January 2020.”
Universities Australia also revealed the sector is expected to lose another $2 billion in 2021 due to the lack of international students.
CEO Catriona Jackson said she expected the hit to universities to be felt for years.
“Continuing border closures mean universities face the double whammy of fewer returning students in 2020, and reduced numbers in 2021,” she said in news.com.au.
“No sector can absorb revenue declines this large without staff losses.”
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