Redundancy tally at debt-struck Wollongong set to triple

The quantum of job cuts at Australia’s University of Wollongong (UOW) may triple, as cost-cutting measures move from teaching to operations.

UOW plans to reduce its workforce by up to 185 equivalent full-time positions, in a restructure that would abolish one of its four faculties and cut its 18 schools to 11.

The “draft change proposal” for UOW Operations, unveiled on 24 March, follows the January finalisation of an academic restructure that claimed the equivalent of 92 full-time jobs and closed four “unviable” disciplines, saving the institution some A$21 million (£10 million) a year.

Interim vice-chancellor Eileen McLaughlin said the university needed to find another A$30 million in recurrent savings after revenue fell by A$35 million last year, partly due to visa processing changes.

She said no final decisions had been made and committed to “genuine and meaningful consultation” over the next few months. “While there is a strong financial imperative to this change proposal, the outcome must be a platform for driving sustainable growth and impact,” she said.

“We must continue to make challenging choices now to set the university up for a brighter future.”

The plan also involves rationalisation of corporate, recruitment, support and executive and governance services. The university said staff potentially affected by “this phase of workplace change” had already been notified. Final changes were expected to be announced on 23 July.

Former Wollongong National Tertiary Education Union branch president Fiona Probyn-Rapsey, who lost her job in the January changes, said staff spent more time dealing with restructures than free of them. “They are destructive; they impact on student satisfaction; they disrupt research,” she told the Senate’s Education and Employment Committee during a 12 March hearing.

“Their frequency is often justified by management as necessary to undo the disasters of the previous restructure. We are always either centralising or decentralising – centralising and decentralising over and over again.”

Wollongong has recorded deficits and one slender surplus since the emergence of Covid-19, which shaved 35 per cent or A$109 million from the institution’s international education earnings between 2019 and 2022. The university recovered 55 per cent of the shortfall in 2023, but was then hit by 2024 visa policy changes including processing delays, mounting rejections and the doubling of application fees.

Wollongong rescinded enrolment offers to students in India, in an ultimately fruitless attempt to protect its immigration risk rating from the changes which it blamed entirely for the A$35 million decline in revenue.

But Probyn-Rapsey highlighted A$169 million in “real estate debts” previously assumed by the university when it terminated a private partnership to develop on-campus accommodation, six years into what was ostensibly a 39-year agreement.

Wollongong subsequently restated its A$49 million 2020 deficit to A$218 million, after being chastised by the New South Wales auditor general’s office for not recording the costs in the year the deal was ended.

Probyn-Rapsey said “governance failures” like this had no impact on council members, “but they do result in another round of job losses for staff”.

McLaughlin said her priority was “to strengthen our foundations and deliver a sustainable future for the university while ensuring [it] remains competitive and innovative”. Respected university leader Max Lu is due to take over as substantive Wollongong vice-chancellor in May.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com