The university sector is undergoing significant challenges due to COVID 19 and the subsequent loss of international students and without the support of Jobkeeper. Since this time last year over 17,000 academic and professional staff (that’s 1 in 8) have either been forced into redundancy or chosen voluntary redundancy. The large casual workforce in universities have also lost their jobs but without the benefit of redundancy payments.
Macquarie University has, so far, only sought voluntary redundancies which has returned approximately $6M of savings but is committed to reducing staffing costs by $25.2 million in total. The VR scheme has been extended but forced redundancies are likely soon.
Many of you will have recently read of Professor Norma Harrison taking VR. At that time Professor Gayle Avery also took VR. Last week we learnt of further MGSM academic staff who have now taken VR including:
Professor Richard Badham,
Dr Andrew Heys, Director International Engagement
Assoc. Professor Paul Nesbit
Assoc. Professor Steven Segal
Also, due to the change to the MBA curriculum (see our story here) and the need to reduce staffing costs, casual (adjunct) lecturers including Randal Tame, Paul Blanket and Rod Lopez, among others, will not be returning to teach on the MBA.
MGSM professional staff who have taken VR include Raymond Delena and Ariel Alcantara.
We will follow up soon with information about what the future holds for Gayle Avery, Richard Badham and Steven Segal.
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