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NEWS
The university plans to build“ bespoke” college to improve retention rates.
By James Wells
Victoria University has confirmed 115 jobs will be cut throughout the year as it establishes its First Year College.
VU provost and deputy vice-chancellor professor Kerri-Lee Krause said 115 staff members“ will exit the university over the course of 2017”.
She said there won’ t be forced redundancies until other processes to cut staff have run their course.
“ We’ re looking at a series of mitigation processes, including voluntary separation packages, changes to work commitments, and also recruitment opportunities,” Krause said.“ So, some staff will certainly put their hand up to work in this bespoke first-yearfocused college.”
The rationale behind the proposed First Year College is to provide personalised support to VU’ s first year cohorts to improve student retention rates at the university. The college will be staffed by teaching specialist
VU cuts over 100 jobs
academics, vocational education teachers and administration workers.
According to VU, the First Year College requires fewer staff to run, hence the 115 job losses.
Krause said this plan was designed to help improve VU’ s financial position by helping more students stay and study.
The university’ s four most recent annual reports reveal it has been operating in the red, with the latest report, for the year 2015, showing a deficit of $ 11.8 million.
“ There certainly is an expectation that through this process we will improve our retention rates, which means that our students will be more likely to stay with us and have a really positive experience,” Krause explained.
“ And we also hope that we will attract more students, that we will build on our already strong reputation, and that students will elect VU as their first preference.
“ So, in that sense, we’ re hoping to be an even more attractive destination for students, and the focus is very much on their experience and making sure that we build the quality of the offering,” she continued.
“ That means that we strengthen the viability and sustainability of the organisation at the same time.”
But the VU branch of the National Tertiary Education Union has argued that financial sustainability can be achieved without the staff cuts. The union pointed to VU’ s December 2016 budget report to the university council which included $ 38.2 million in its Operating Margin for Reinvestment( OMR) as part of a strategic fund for expenditure across the university.
The NTEU has questioned why university management has exempted this portfolio from cuts. Paul Adams, president of the VU branch of the NTEU, said the OMR was responsible for much of VU’ s deficit.
“ Things that the OMR has been spent on over the years is redundancies, setting up a boost for the First Year College and various other schemes around the university,” Adams said.“ So yes, we do have a deficit, but we would also say to some extent it’ s a manufactured deficit.”
Krause denied this and said while it was anticipated that the First Year College would improve the university’ s financial position, that was not its primary objective.
“ VU’ s audited financial deficit is documented in the university’ s annual reports, which are publicly available,” Krause said.“ VU is carefully managing its revenue and expenditure to rectify its current financial deficit and return to a net positive position. However, the First Year Model is not a strategy to achieve this objective.
“ The First Year Model represents VU’ s ongoing commitment to give any student, from any background, the opportunity to undertake further study and to help them achieve their best. Accordingly, any financial gain will be reinvested for the benefit of students.
“ The university will continue to make strategic investments to build organisational capability and enhance the offer to students.”
Adams also said VU was“ taking a McDonald’ s approach to employment” through its First Year College.
“[ We think this means shifting ] a good percentage of the workforce onto lower employment conditions,” Adams said.“ The reason for that is they tried the last year unsuccessfully to change our academic workload agreement.
“ They weren’ t able to do that, and we were able to argue successfully that they weren’ t through the Fair Work Commission. What they’ re doing now is implementing a change plan to shift people onto different conditions.” ■
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