The Australian Association of University Professors says the first thing is to identify how many people are at risk and then empower experts to help them

by Tom Smith and James Guthrie

“The National Tertiary Education Union believes the accord, to apply at universities where both management and staff endorse it, and the Fair Work Commission ratifies it, could save the equivalent of 13,500 full-time jobs.

“We are concerned that many more university employees will lose work and ask everybody involved to start reporting people numbers, not Full-Time Equivalent staff numbers.

Universities are starting to announce mass layoffs of casual staff to offset the decline in expected revenues due to the loss of full-paying international students. Universities are talking in terms of Full Time Equivalent Staff (FTEs), but there are real people involved and many more than the FTE figures reveal.

FTEs do not tell the story of the people likely to be affected by the cost-cutting. Universities must disclose the actual number of people that are going to be affected by these cost-cutting measures.”

Smith and Guthrie (Macquarie U), for the Australian Association of University Professors, explain how many casuals there actually are, and present ideas to help them. It’s in CMM this morning, here.