“We’ve also stopped some fixed-term contracts and not recruited more people, so in this current number, there are 105 roles which are going to be made redundant or change, but there are 52 new or changed roles which those 105 can apply for,” Prof Bentley said.
He said the redundancies would have little or no impact on teaching and the delivery of courses across the university.
Prof Bentley said cutting back administrative roles should make it easier for students to enrol.
“It makes it actually difficult for students to enrol if they’ve got to go through several inboxes before they get a response, so it’s cutting out those sorts of handovers, making it more streamlined, making it more efficient, so students are getting a better service in fact through this change,” he said.
The university has extended counselling to affected employees and will continue supporting them as they transition out of their jobs.
“We have identified the roles ... and over the last couple of days we’ve been speaking to everybody who’s impacted and let them know that they can apply for the roles which are available in the new structure,” Prof Bentley said.
Prof Bentley was insistent the future of the university in the Wimmera remained positive.
“In fact, we’re growing the Wimmera – in this last year, Federation TAFE has received $2.6 million in State Government funding to establish a new engineering learning space ... to deliver vital skills for the Wimmera,” he said.
“The other one, which we’re really excited about as well, is the recommencement of our offering of higher education in the Wimmera.
“The schools got together with us, and we went to the Victorian government.
“Unlike the feds (Federal Government) who are not helping with funding at the moment, the State Government has given us free TAFE, and the numbers are booming there.
“They have also helped to fund a cohort of 25 students enrolled in becoming teachers across the Wimmera because the shortage of teachers is critical, and so that has been something very important to us that we get higher education back to the Wimmera and we provide the jobs and skills that are absolutely needed.”
Inadequate funding
A Universities Accord Final Report, released by the Federal Government, recognised public funding for regional universities has historically been inadequate, and policy changes on international migration has resulted in significant changes to university income.
Prof Bentley called on the Federal Government to better fund regional universities.
“At the moment, as the Universities Accord Final Report identified, you can have up to 23 percent less students in the outer regional areas attending post-secondary education, whether it’s TAFE or it’s higher education, and mostly it’ll be TAFE. We need those skills in our communities and so it’s vital they do help fund that,” he said.
“Now to his credit, (Federal) Minister for Skills and Employment Brendan O’Connor has taken up what Victorian Minister Tierney has done with starting free TAFE – Mr O’Connor has extended it, and you can see that in our classrooms – we’ve got more students.
“What we’re trying to do as part of Future Fed is to make sure we boost quality, boost the student experience so that we can attract more students and support them through with the right people so that they succeed and finish their courses and get into employment.”
Prof Bentley said he would be in Canberra this week ‘strongly advocating for regional universities to not be impacted by the caps on international students’.
“We need to work together with the regions and communities to advocate strongly for more funding from the Federal Government, and also the State Government. Too much is going into the metros and not enough is coming to our regional areas. We can’t be left behind. They can’t forget us.”
The Federal Government has announced its intention to consider regional equitable funding models in 2026 and the introduction of legislation to reshape the Australian international education sector.
The National Tertiary Education Union, NTEU, warned the university’s plan to slash jobs would inflame its financial problems, and did not address the core issue facing the institution – enrolment decline and difficulties retaining students.
NTEU FedUni branch president Mathew Abbott said the professional staff set to be cut provided critical support to other staff and students.
“The problem is that these mass cuts only stand to exacerbate our revenue problems, making our university a less attractive place to study by undermining the quality of our programs and student support,” he said.
Mr Abbott said the cuts were the fifth round of redundancies at the university in the past five years, with 64 positions cut in 2020, 28 in 2021, 44 in 2022, and 18 in 2023.
“The change paper proposes to disestablish a senior provost position that was created only last year in a previous restructure. In 2022, FedUni management cut its arts program only to reinstate it two weeks later after a successful NTEU campaign,” he said.
“Chaotic decision making and distressing levels of job insecurity are taking their toll on staff at our institution, and these negative impacts are simultaneously felt by our students whose learning conditions are undermined as staff working conditions are.
Staff members feel that the future of our university is under threat.”
The entire June 26, 2024 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!
The entire June, 26, 2024 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!
