No job cuts this year and maybe even hope for some insecure staff

Monash U will honour its 2020 commitment to no redundancy programmes this year “and we are working on the 2022 budget to make sure we can extend that commitment through 2022,” Vice Chancellor Margaret Gardner tells staff.

The university also plans to offer job-security to externally funded fixed-term research–only staff who have been on continuous contracts for four years.

And Professor Gardner is “hopeful” that an unspecified number of Monash PhD students with sessional teaching positions will be offered fixed-term contracts, within this year. She signalled negotiations with the National Tertiary Education Union on this in March (CMM April 1).

As for teaching – they’re not in Clayton anymore

At least not the way it was. Certainly not for the 9500 Monash students studying offshore.

While there could be “a reasonable facsimile of normal campus life” this semester, there will need to be “widespread, high-quality digital elements embedded in the on-campus experience,” the vice chancellor says.

The challenge is, “thinking again about the best ways for us to teach so that students learn – which means making the most of the time they are together, by emphasising and enhancing the active over the passive in our on-campus teaching and experience.”

As for the 9 500 Monash U students off-shore, “we have been looking at sites where we can provide some of these students with places to meet in person and to receive personal support for their studies.” But not necessarily finding, “a number of our potential sites in countries where our students are living and studying with us are not available because of the pandemic.”