Courses saved after NTEU protests, tertiary sector still facing funding crisis
Ellie Stephenson reports.
Cover image credit: May 1 Movement
Staff and students have won a significant victory after the University of Sydney has reneged on 30% cuts to courses in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), notifying staff last night that only 8% of courses would likely be cut. This comes after protests and a staff petition demanding that the University not punish staff for the tertiary sector’s financial woes.
The protests occurred on the National Tertiary Education Union’s (NTEU) National Day of Action (NDA) yesterday, Thursday 21 May, which called on the Australian Government to step in to bail out universities and guarantee staff jobs in the tertiary education sector. Staff at the University of Sydney have criticised management for cutting courses and staff jobs while maintaining their own exorbitant salaries; Vice Chancellor Michael Spence is paid $1.5 million per year.
The NDA involved a convoy to protest the Liberal government, which left Sydney's Domain at 10am and went to the Liberal Party’s NSW headquarters. At USyd, there was a protest with staff at 2pm, including a “socially distant ‘funeral service’ held for the arts”. Today, there was also a National Day of Online Action where students challenged Education Minister Dan Tehan to a Zoom debate at 1pm and hosted student union representatives and other speakers to discuss the actions of uni management and the government during COVID-19.
Before last night’s announcement, the University was reportedly planning to cut a third of Arts and Social Sciences courses, which would lead to mass job losses, especially for casual staff, as well as diminished choice for students. The page Staff & Students Say NO CUTS warned a large number of courses, especially in Political Economy, English, Government and International Relations and Sociology, would be cut. This also included pre-honours subjects. While the campaign has celebrated the change to the University’s plans, they maintained that “we are not conceding on lost 8 per cent of of courses in Arts [sic]” and would aim to protect courses in other disciplines.
Job losses and cuts remain a concern, especially to casual staff. Casual staff who will lose their jobs have no access to the JobKeeper payments and many are migrant workers with no access to safety nets at all. In a video posted by Dr Toby Fitch, casual staff in FASS demanded that Michael Spence and Faculty Dean Annamarie Jagose avoid sacrificing casuals. An open letter from FASS casuals also addressed the issue, asking Spence and Jagose to “immediately reverse [their] decision to cut up to thirty percent of units of study in FASS”. The letter emphasised how essential casuals are to the University’s operations, who “bring many years of experience - in some cases decades - to [their] teaching and research”.
The financial impacts of COVID-19 on the University sector have been significant across the board. Pulp reported last month on a report from the UNSW Casuals Network that a third of UNSW casual staff had lost work as a result of the crisis.
There has also been conflict within the NTEU between the National Executive and the rank-and-file membership, with the USyd Branch critiquing the National Jobs Protection Framework (NJPF) proposed by the Executive. The NJPF is the plan proposed by the union’s National Executive to attempt to protect jobs by taking pay cuts. The USyd Branch noted that “the Framework places a heavy burden on university staff”, as staff are being asked to take significant pay cuts without guaranteed protection of jobs. The Branch singled out the “wiggle room” in the Framework which could allow management to reduce the work available for staff, drawing the conclusion that staff may be “giving up hard-won conditions for little gain”.
Student unions have also been speaking out to support staff. The National Union of the Students (NUS) joined in the action, with NUS President Molly Willmott tweeting that “NUS is proud to be joining in on the @NTEUNational National Day of Action to #savehigheredjobs today!”, calling on students to share stories about how staff have impacted their time at uni. USU President Connor Wherrett also expressed support for the NDA on behalf of the USU.