The NTEU demands the VC demand it

Last month UNE’s newish-VC Brigid Heywood delivered a grim state of the uni report, “UNE is not heading in a positive direction, or at a pace that keeps the institution ahead of an ever-growing set of competitors.”

She proceeded to set out in great detail what is wrong with the university’s structure and what she is going to do about it, (MM July 30). She had already advised staff that “thetriple burden of long-term drought, bushfires and COVID-19,” meant 200 jobs have to go (CMM July 23).

To which the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union now responds, “fund UNE fairly – no staff cuts.” The union argues the university’s problems are due to “decades of federal government policy,” “which, “have left the higher education sector in a permanently deteriorating crisis.” Professor Heywood’s plan, “shifts the suffering imposed by government policy onto staff and onto students,” the NTEU argues.

Instead, the comrades say, she should, “demand UNE receives the fair funding it needs.”