Union pushes back against proposed staff cuts at regional university

Claire Halliday
As many as 200 staff face losing their jobs due to Federation University budget cuts.

Federation University staff say they will fight the loss of 200 jobs “using all available means”.

The regional Victorian university has its main campus in Ballarat, with other campus locations in Churchill in Gippsland, Horsham in western Victoria and Berwick in Melbourne’s south-east. Last month, it announced an aim to slash $20 million in costs in 2024 by making 200 staff – around 12 per cent of its workforce – redundant.

National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) president Matthew Abbott said union members met and passed a motion calling for the resignation of vice chancellor Duncan Bentley and chief financial officer John Blair. 

“Staff are sick of bearing the brunt of the mistakes of senior management,” Mr Abbott said. 

- Advertisement -

Leadership blames financial scars of post-pandemic university sector

Federation University leadership cites a drop in numbers of enrolled international students as instrumental in its current financial situation. Enrolments of international students fell by 49 per cent between 2019 and 2023, causing a $79 million drop in revenue. 

But the union believes that excuse points to failed leadership and says staff shouldn’t suffer as a result.

“Fed Uni has been going through a process of almost constant restructuring since before, during and now after the pandemic … staff and students have been dealing with round after round of cuts and redundancies for years,” said Mr Abbott.

“Shouldn’t responsibility start at the very top? It is not the decisions of staff members that led to the university prioritising revenue from international students.”

- Advertisement -

In response, Federation University acting vice chancellor Liam Sloan claimed the issues the university is facing are sector-wide and “not down to any one individual”, adding that “we do not have enough students to currently meet our staffing base”.

“Unlike other universities [during the coronavirus pandemic], we did not go through huge cuts,” Mr Sloan said.

“We were trying to bide our time in the hope that international student numbers would increase, and we would see domestic numbers increase, but unfortunately we haven’t.”

According to Mr Sloan, Federation University experienced an $80 million deficit in 2023.

In 2024, Mr Sloan said domestic enrolments were around 8,000 this year – down almost 200 compared to pre-COVID levels. International student numbers at the university are down about 5,000, he said – from a pre-COVID figure of 8,500 to 3,500 currently. 

- Advertisement -

Reality of staffing cuts unclear

With no clear indication from Federation University’s leadership team on what areas or courses will be impacted by the planned staffing cuts NTEU’s Mr Abbott said staff are experiencing widespread “anger” and “distress”.

Mr Sloan said the first steps of the process were opening expressions of interest for voluntary redundancies and involving staff in consultation about their views on the future direction of the university. 

“We do not have a plan around who will go from what areas and what the numbers will look like across each of our portfolios, but that is the whole point of this consultation process,” he said. 

But the NTEU has grave concerns that was worried Federation University would not survive the staff cuts. 

“Cutting 12 per cent of staff now, the concern is the university might not be able to sustain cuts at that level… and management is about to make a powerful and terrible mistake,” Mr Abbott said. 

- Advertisement -
Share This Article
Claire Halliday has an extensive career as a full-time writer - across book publishing, copywriting, podcasting and feature journalism - for more than 25 years. She lives in Melbourne with children, two border collies and a grumpy Burmese cat. Contact: claire.halliday[at]educationdaily.au