University of Newcastle staff have ‘no trust’ in management amid course cuts

University funds have taken a terrible hit as a result of the CoViD pandemic. Nevertheless, in every discussion of how Universities should respond to this crisis, there is an enormous aggressive Elephant In The Room, that noone is prepared to acknowledge, either out of politeness in a few cases or outright fear in the remaining majority.

The only discussions concerning University responses to the funding crisis seem to revolve around how many Academic and professional Support Staff will have to be sacked, and how many subjects, courses and degrees will have to be cut. But these are only one part of the overall equation.

The unacknowledged Elephant In The Room has a name: “Senior Executives”. A couple of decades ago, Universities had a relatively flat management structure; there was a Vice Chancellor and a Deputy, a Pro-Vice-Chancellor for each of teaching and research, and then the Deans of the Faculties. Since then, however, all that has changed. Not only has the pay of these senior public servants sky-rocketted, but many Universities would now boast half-a-dozen Deputy Vice Chancellors and possibly over a dozen Pro-Vice-Chancellors, in addition to a fair collection of highly remunerated Heads of Divisions, as well as external consultants.

Awkward as it might be, we cannot have a meaningful conversation about University cost-cutting and reform, without considering honestly every position in the Institution, and the continuing need for such positions particularly during a time of crisis. Almost every University Employee, great or small, is supported by the taxpayer and so there is no prima facie case for insulating some of them from the cold winds of reform, at the expense of all the others.

We do need to engage with this difficult issue, and we need to do it with honesty and courage. When people pay (a lot of) money to study at University, I feel I can state with confidence that their primary motivation is not to support a welfare system for the upper-middle class; instead, they expect to benefit from a wealth of good subjects delivered in the best ways possible, as appropriate. Yet these are the very areas targetted most ruthlessly by many Universities. That does not make much sense, frankly.

I hope that Australia is capable of greater maturity and honesty than simply to ignore this challenge, and just carry on as at present. Otherwise, we will just continue to fall further behind in attracting good students and contributing to the research needed for our future well-being.