The University of Newcastle has ruled out mass staff redundancies and will instead pursue increased efficiencies as part of a push to improve its bottom line.
It comes amid mounting speculation that large-scale job losses will occur in coming months.
Several sources have told the Newcastle Herald that recent internal modelling found about 400 positions need to be cut to ensure ongoing financial sustainability.
The university launched a Business Improvement Program last month.
Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Kent Anderson said the university had engaged with more than 1,200 staff as part of the project.
"The program will consider all aspects of the university's operations, focused on processes and technology as areas for improvement," he said.
"While there are no plans for a redundancy program at our university, we are always looking at ways to be more efficient across our operations."
The university's 2023 annual report shows that it recorded a consolidated operating deficit of $0.3 million, a slight improvement on the previous year.
However, it stressed the need to return to profitability.
"While minimising our losses is important, a return to surplus is critical to allow us to invest in our university's future," the report says.
National Tertiary Education Union Newcastle branch president Terry Summers said the union shared members' concerns about potential job losses.
"The vice-chancellor has said the university has an underlying financial problem," he said.
"There's no doubt the university is looking to save money and its costs are heavily weighted towards its staff. You can connect the dots."
Associate Professor Summers said a significant number of jobs had been lost in recent times, despite the lack of a formal change process.
"Essentially people were paid to leave," he said.
"I had a number of members tell me, 'Look, I'm just taking the money because I want to get out'."
Vice-chancellor Alex Zelinsky said in May that 2023 had been another challenging year across the university sector.
"Achieving consolidated revenue and income of $868M in 2023 (up from $779M in 2022) in a year when domestic student revenue remained flat across the sector is certainly positive," he said.
"Unfortunately, however, these gains were mitigated by rising costs in every aspect of operations. Our overall result of -$0.3M, the result of prudent financial management, is commendable in the short-term, but break-even results don't sustain the long-term health of the university.
"It's important that we budget for and achieve a surplus each year to allow for investment in our future."
The university's annual report show's total assets increased by $78.7 million (3 per cent) and liabilities grew by $24.2 million (5 per cent) last year.
Overall cash balances grew by $6.5 million due to operating net cash receipts increasing $13.6 million, offset by higher investing cash outflows and stable financing activity cash outflows.
An increase in liabilities of $34.2 million was attributed primarily to employee entitlement increases for current annual and long service leave entitlements due to Enterprise Agreement salary increases and growing employee leave balances ($10.8M).
The university shed 450 jobs, or 20 per cent of staff, in 2005 after recording a $28 million deficit.
