Australian vice-chancellor quits amid redundancy plans

The vice-chancellor of a regional Australian university has fast-tracked her retirement plans as the institution prepares to lay off staff amid a national funding crisis.

University of Southern Queensland (USQ) vice-chancellor Geraldine Mackenzie, who was contracted to lead the institution until next September, will formally retire on 28 February and bring forward leave planned for next year. Her final act as university leader will be hosting a 30 October graduation ceremony.

USQ is undergoing a restructure as it faces a A$30 million (£15 million) deficit. Professor Mackenzie had previously scheduled a meeting with staff on 31 October to “discuss the need for change”, according to the Toowoomba Chronicle.

She said that she was leaving primarily for family reasons and that her decision had preceded a 23 October National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) vote of no confidence in the university executive. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” she said. “It crystallised when I had some time off recently.

“I’ve done seven years, and when you add in the pandemic and the current issues with the federal government, it’s been an incredibly difficult time. It’s a good time to have a new vice-chancellor come in, and seven years is a long stint.”

USQ, which is consulting staff over its restructure proposals, has not outlined how many jobs will go, saying decisions will be taken in November. The NTEU says 60 positions have already been proposed for disestablishment and another 27 staff have been granted voluntary early retirement.

At least six other Australian universities are planning job cuts as they confront rising costs, flat domestic enrolments and a plunge in earnings from international students. The federal government has de-prioritised visa processing for many institutions, introduced new subjective grounds for refusing visas, massively increased visa fees and unveiled plans to cap overseas student numbers.

Professor Mackenzie said USQ was far from the worst affected university, with foreign students comprising only about 10 per cent of its enrolments. “It still is a big part of our revenue. Having…our commencing [international] students cut to approximately half – that has a huge impact.

“There’s other vice-chancellors…under extraordinary pressure. You don’t realise the extent of it until…you stop and reflect. Staff are really suffering, [but] my decision to retire isn’t a result of stress. It’s time to move on and have a life, really.”

The vice-chancellors of about half of Australia’s universities resigned or retired during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, typically after about seven years in the job. Professor Mackenzie said the personal and institutional stress of the past 10 months, since the government began changing visa processes, had been “very similar” to that experienced during Covid.

But she said USQ’s proposed international student cap would allow for a recovery in overseas student numbers, as long as the visa processing problems were addressed. “I’m confident, despite all of this, I’m leaving the university in good shape.”

USQ’s NTEU branch president, Andrea Lamont-Mills, said staff slated for redundancy had “given their all” to the university. “Our members know we’re in a financial crisis. They get there’s going to be job cuts. They just want to be treated with a bit of dignity.”

The no-confidence motion, passed at a meeting of 170 of USQ’s 1,500-plus staff, noted the “lack of transparency of the current change process” and the “profligate use” of university funds for “non-core purposes”.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com