Victoria University staff and students say a drive to outsource services will create further job losses and poor outcomes for students.
Senior lecturer Paul Adams said a forum to be held in Footscray on Wednesday would discuss major outsourcing proposals that threaten service quality and job security.
The National Tertiary Education Union VU president said tens of millions of dollars in state and federal government cuts had put unprecedented pressure on VU to find savings, but management was going about it the wrong way.
“It’s fairly clear some of the dilemmas VU finds itself in are about poor management,” he said.
Dr Adams said proposals to outsource IT services could cost VU more while reducing quality and satisfaction.
“There is a real lack of transparency in terms of what is happening and how these things area assessed,” he said.
Further VU job losses are likely this year on top of the 400 lost in the past two years.
Deputy vice-chancellor Duncan Bentley said the university’s shared-services model aimed to help streamline and simplify the way staff delivered services.
“We are reducing our policies and the layers of red tape beneath them by almost half,” he said.
Professor Bentley said a staff survey late last year found satisfaction varied considerably between well-established shared services such as library and information technology, and newly established services such as student connections.
Professor Bentley confirmed VU was exploring outsourcing options for facilities, infrastructure and IT operations, provided they improved efficiency and service quality.
A review of VU childcare services is complete and potential changes could be in place from 2016.
PhD student Natalie Zirngast, a parent who uses VU childcare services, said it would be a major mistake for VU to outsource childcare. She said outsourcing to a provider working on a profit model would reduce quality and risked losing well-trained staff.
“This really matters because we have students coming in and learning best-practice childcare from this well-qualified staff,” she said.
The forum will be held from 1pm today at the Victoria University Footscray Park campus, building M, room M001.
