Deakin University has announced plans to terminate up to 220 employees as the tertiary education sector braces for a “second wave” of job cuts.
During a town hall conference on Tuesday, the Deakin University vice-chancellor, Prof Iain Martin, announced a plan to cut between 180 and 220 jobs, citing rising staff costs and falling revenue, the latter exacerbated greatly by the pandemic.
These will be a mix of full-time and part-time roles, and it’s understood will likely be weighted towards non-academic roles.
Although he said not all the problems were caused by Covid-19, the vice-chancellor cited closed international borders, preventing international student intake, as a major factor.
“It is now expected that the faculty’s international student load will not return to pre-pandemic figures in the foreseeable future,” he reportedly told staff.
Deakin University has already undergone significant job losses in the pandemic, shedding about 400 positions last year, 100 of which were already vacant due to a hiring freeze.
The National Tertiary Education Union’s Deakin branch president, Piper Rodd, said staff were “devastated” by the news of more cuts.
“It was a surprise … but it was always kind of hinted at, that there might be a phase two to this process,” she said.
“This comes at a time when university workers are under enormous, unprecedented workload pressures, time pressures and not to mention the rolling lockdowns that have impacted all of us for like the last two years.”
Rodd said the move “represents a massive failure” both by successive federal governments and the university management.
“The professed rhetoric has always been, for the last two years, that it’s because of our heavy reliance on international students, which you know is partly true. But it goes to my broader point that university management has been complicit with governments in defunding higher education and relying on using ‘cash cow’ international students, who have been really badly treated out of this pandemic.”
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Staff were told there would be a two-week “consultation process” with changes hoped to be finalised by the end of the year.
In a statement, Martin said the proposed changes were “necessary to secure Deakin’s financial future while ensuring [their] services are effective, cohesive, and aligned to core purposes”.
“What Deakin delivers matters. It matters to our students and staff, our local communities, Victoria and Australia, and through our many connections and networks, it matters globally – now more than ever.”
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The National Tertiary Education Union president, Alison Barnes, said it was likely more universities would follow in a “second round” of tertiary education staff shedding.
“There is a sense of those looming cuts across other universities … we are concerned about the sector generally, as that second wave of job cuts starts to loom,” she said. “We are fighting desperately hard to prevent [the second wave] and I think the federal government really needs to step in and ensure that there isn’t one.”
The higher education sector shed nearly 20,000 jobs in the pandemic, with institutions largely denied access to jobkeeper.
While Australia had some plans for a staged return of full fee-paying international students, many institutions suffered huge blows to their revenue when international borders closed.
“For higher education, for our universities, the Covid crisis doesn’t end when vaccination rates reach a certain point,” Barnes said.
“There are long-term ramifications for our universities and for people who work and learn there.”
The proposed cuts are a part of a larger overhaul of how the university operates, dubbed “Deakin Reimagined”.
“Deakin must be ready to tackle head-on the challenges of an uncertain future. Deakin Reimagined is about not only emerging from the difficulties of Covid-19 but investing in a vibrant and sustainable future,” Martin said.
