NTEU vows to fight deep job cuts across three major unis
The National Tertiary Education Union will fight deep job cuts at the University of Sydney, the University of NSW and Macquarie University, announced by management in recent days.
340 positions could be culled at Sydney University, 50 jobs will go at Macquarie University, and an unspecified number of redundancies will hit UNSW’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
NTEU NSW Secretary, Genevieve Kelly, said the cuts would affect the quality of teaching and research.
“We intend to fight this assault on the quality of higher education, tooth and nail,” Genevieve Kelly said.
“At a time of growing student enrolments and a burgeoning demand for higher education, management at three major universities have taken the irresponsible step of cutting jobs.
“University staff are already stretched, doing too much with too few resources. If these job cuts stand, they will impact the quality of student contact and research.”
Job cuts at the three universities come as student numbers at all three universities are expected to surge under the newly deregulated student course place system.
The cuts also come despite healthy financial surpluses at all three universities. In the most recent financial year, UNSW enjoyed a surplus of $141.1 million, the University of Sydney, $113.1 million and Macquarie University $100.6 million.
“To cut jobs at the current time is nonsensical and unfair,” Genevieve Kelly said.
“The NTEU calls on all management at Macquarie, Sydney and UNSW to backtrack quickly. Quality teaching and research requires investment in staff, not job cuts.”
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Branch Contacts
Branch Office
Room 412 Seddon Bdg (82D) St Lucia Campus
University of Queensland
Phone: 07 3365 2538
Fax: 07 3365 2949
uq@nteu.org.au
http://www.nteu.org.au/uq
Andrew Bonnell
Branch President
a.bonnell@uq.edu.au
Lachlan Hurse
Branch Organiser
lhurse@nteu.org.au
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