DEAKIN'S $2.5 MILLION GRANT IS ABOUT GOVERNMENT'S IR AGENDA, NOT STUDENT OUTCOMES
12 September 2007
The $2.5 million grant that Deakin University has recently received as part of the Workplace Productivity Program (WPP) is an incentive to further implement the Government’s radical industrial relations agenda and has little to do with student outcomes, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said today.
The NTEU was responding to a statement today by the local (Liberal) Member of Parliament, Stuart McArthur, about the WPP grant.
NTEU Deakin University Branch President Dr Colin Long said “Mr McArthur says the grant will be used by Deakin to ‘reform human resources practices and provide greater flexibility in its operations’. From our experiences in the higher education sector since this program was introduced in 2005, what this means in reality is:
- increased levels of casual academic employment;
- creating teaching-only academic positions,
- discouraging staff rights to be adequately represented by their union and increasing managerial prerogative, and
- systems that make it easier for universities to offer AWAs.
“And we all know from Education Minister Julie Bishop’s recent comments that when the government talks about incorporating ‘choice’ and ‘flexibility’ into institutional arrangements, what they really mean is pushing as many staff as possible on to AWAs and off the collective agreement,” Dr Long said.
“The Workplace Productivity Programme is about providing Australian universities with a financial incentive to introduce policies and procedures that help implement the Government’s ideologically-driven industrial relations agenda within the higher education sector.”
“This level of unnecessary interference in and micro-management of universities means increased bureaucracy and red tape that have to be dealt with, which actually diverts scarce resources away from improving the quality of education provision to students.”
For further information and comment:
Dr Colin Long, NTEU Deakin University Branch President 0403 920 361