More than 1,000 jobs could be lost across seven universities as part of major budgetary cuts announced in recent weeks, prompting fears the international student crackdown is placing the sector at a tipping point.
The government is hoping to pass its student cap bill next month, which would set course limits for institutions across the higher education sector to bring total enrolments down to 270,000 from 2025.
But universities are already feeling the impacts of a strain on foreign enrolments, with Universities Australia’s head, Luke Sheehy, warning ongoing migration reforms have already cost the economy $4.3bn. He projects the latest policy will put 14,000 university jobs at risk.
How did we get here, and are the caps to blame?
Who is shedding jobs?
Universities in Queensland, Canberra and New South Wales have all announced staff cuts in the past month as part of significant restructures to stave off major deficits.
Last week, the Australian National University (ANU) announced 87 job losses across three divisions after previously cutting 50 jobs from its college of health and medicine.
Its vice-chancellor, Prof Genevieve Bell, said $250m in savings were needed by the end of next year, including $100m in salaries. She has requested staff consider forgoing an upcoming 2.5% pay increase to stave off a potential loss of 638 jobs.
The University of Canberra followed on Monday, with its vice-chancellor, Prof Stephen Parker, advising staff $50m must be taken out of recurrent expenditure to 2025, which would remove “at least” 200 staffing positions, including up to nine in senior management.
In Queensland, James Cook University will cut 67 positions in addition to more than 100 lost in the year to 2023, while Griffith University has also advised staff there will be “fewer than 50” redundancies due to “significant financial losses”.
The University of Southern Queensland is yet to detail exactly how many jobs will be cut but has advised staff it needs to fill a $32m budget hole. The union estimates 60 jobs have been lost already.
Macquarie University’s dean of arts, Prof Chris Dixon, has warned of significant reductions to casual staff from 2025, while the University of Wollongong began a “workplace change process” on Wednesday, with the union estimating more than 200 staff would be cut due to a $35m drop in revenue.
Why are the cuts necessary?
Universities have pointed to ongoing financial pressures – including recent federal government changes to migration that has resulted in 60,000 fewer visas being granted in the higher education sector.
A spokesperson for ANU said the operating environment for universities had changed “significantly” and its deficit could no longer be addressed by increasing revenue from student enrolments.
Interim vice-chancellor of the UoW, Prof John Dewar, said the sector was facing a period of “unprecedented government reform”.
“In our current financial circumstances, we must focus on our strengths in teaching and research, which means that we must consider discontinuing some areas of teaching where we have low student demand and areas of research activity,” he said.
Parker has been more frank. He told a staff town hall that slowing international student numbers had been a factor in UC’s poor financial performance, but laid the responsibility with the university for its “unsustainable position”.
“We cannot expect any external assistance and must take urgent and significant measures to re-balance the institution,” he said. “There is no point in blaming others.”
How have academics reacted?
Academics have been scathing in their critique, with the National Tertiary Education Union (Nteu) president, Prof Alison Barnes, laying blame squarely with “shocking mismanagement”.
“Unless we see urgent governance reform, our cherished public universities will continue to suffer from the mismanagement of unaccountable and overpaid vice-chancellors,” she said.
Nteu UniSQ branch president, Prof Andrea Lamont-Mills, said colleagues left behind would be “forced to shoulder massive workload burdens” which would have a flow-on effect to student learning.
“It points to a major failure by management to keep the university in financial health,” she said.
The JCU Nteu branch president, Dr Jonathan Strauss, was among those whose role was proposed to be axed. He said the cuts were a result of a “decade-long decline” in student enrolments that wouldn’t be reversed by shedding jobs, while Queensland division secretary, Michael McNally, said the cuts were “premature” when JCU’s proposed international student cap was higher than current enrolments.
What happens next?
The federal government will have two weeks to pass its student cap bill when parliament nexts sits in November. A Senate committee earlier this month recommended significant amendments, including removing the ability to set course-level enrolment limits.
Greens deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has lobbied against the bill. She said universities were “in strife” as a result of the “unabated” corporatisation of the sector.
“Rampant casualisation, wage theft and enormous workloads were already crushing staff, and now hundreds will be without a job,” she said. “It should be VC salaries that are cut, not staff jobs.”
This week, the education minister, Jason Clare, announced an expert council on university governance would be established to address rising concerns, beginning in December. The council will provide ministers with advice about improving university performance, including ensuring governing bodies have the “right expertise” and cracking down on wage theft.
Speaking on ABC Radio Canberra on Tuesday, Sheehy warned further job cuts were to come, placing blame for the state of the sector with stagnating federal government funding. He said universities were in a “lot of pain”, with 25 of 39 in structural deficit last year.
“I don’t want to encourage any job cuts in our sector, but frankly the finances of our sector are in bad shape,” he said. “Damage has already been done.”
