The university has accepted 80 per cent plus of applications for voluntary redundancy

It will also close three small teaching sites in regional Queensland.  But even with these savings added to those already identified observers suggest that on the university’s estimates to date CQU will still be around $25m short of filling its $114m budget gap (CMM April 22, May 12).

But this does not necessarily mean wholesale sackings to come. VC Nick Klomp says the university is interested in alternatives to “staff separation.”

“We are looking carefully at the national negotiations between universities and the National Tertiary Education Union, as this may allow us to recover even more costs through measures other than staff separation.”

But he adds CQU will not commit to “revised enterprise agreement conditions until we have carefully analysed the details.”

“The pay and conditions of our valued staff are just too important to rush into any decisions.”