The university has approved 269 people for voluntary redundancy

 Vice Chancellor S Bruce Dowton announced the VR round in August, warning that if “insufficient staff” were accepted for VRs, “we would then move to consider a range of workplace change processes,” (CMM August 19).

Which he has begun to announce.

Academic staff: no workplace change proposals this year but “likely redundancies, in all four faculties in the first quarter of 2021”

Professional staff: change proposals mid-month for IT, Finance, and PVC (Learning and Teaching) portfolio. Proposals “will be informed by the outcomes of the voluntary redundancy scheme.”

More redundancies: Including the savings from VRs the university is still short $88.5m. “It is inevitable that further reductions in staff costs are needed,” Professor Dowton says. They will come from “continuing staff, fixed-term staff, casuals, and contractors.”

Change for administrators:  The Professional Services Transformation project rolls-on. “The nature of our often highly devolved and locally idiosyncratic ways of delivering these services is not efficient. Neither does it deliver these services at a level of sustainable quality that our students, colleagues and our external partners need.  This is not a reflection on our professional staff – we have talented, committed, and highly capable professional staff. Rather, it is about how we work, including our processes, systems, and structures.”

Change for academics: The VC points to “internal support in the research enterprise,” and “re-inventing some of the fundamental approaches to pedagogy to meet the changing needs and aspirations of our students.”