By Benjamin Millar
Victoria University will shed about 300 staff as it battles to find up to $50 million
in savings by 2016.
A “perfect storm” of heavy federal and state government funding cuts is behind a decision to lay off about 100 academic and 200 professional staff by 2016, taking overall recent job losses to about 700.
Courses could also go as the university narrows its focus to areas such as sport.
Vice-chancellor Peter Dawkins said a “refreshed strategic plan”, revealed last Wednesday, included a push to be recognised as Australia’s premier sports university.
“We are convinced that we are already on the right track, having the largest number of students enrolled in sports-related higher education courses in Australia,” he said.
Total state and local government funding to VU has dropped from $105.4 million in 2010 to $57.7 million in 2013.
VU plans to minimise red tape and reduce staff numbers to help claw back $40 million to $50 million of recurrent savings by 2016.
“At Victoria University, like a number of other universities, without decisive action to streamline our operations and cut costs, our cost pressures will race ahead of revenue growth,” Dr Dawkins said.
National Tertiary Education Union branch secretary Paul Adams questioned university management’s ability to handle the situation.
Dr Adams said tens of millions of dollars in cuts was putting unprecedented pressure on VU, but he also criticised the handling of recent restructuring and a drive to outsource university services.
“VU has been hit by a perfect storm of cuts from the federal and state governments, and the administrative processes of the university are not working as well as they used to,” he said.
“Rather than a knee-jerk reaction, we would like to see the management properly investigate this, not just say there’s a budget crisis where they take actions that make it worse.”
Dr Adams wanted a moratorium on job cuts until all options were explored, noting the loss of 100 academic staff would be the biggest-ever loss of teaching staff at VU.
