Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Deputy Greens Leader and spokesperson for Higher Education, has commented on the slashing of hundreds of jobs in the university sector with the latest announcement today by the University of Canberra, following recent job cut announcements at Macquarie University and the ANU.
As stated by Senator Faruqi:
"There is something deeply wrong with universities if hundreds of jobs are being cut while VCs walk away with million-dollar plus pay packets.
"Rampant casualisation, wage theft and enormous workloads were already crushing staff, and now hundreds will be without a job. It should be VC salaries that should be cut, not staff jobs.
"For too long, the corporatisation of universities has continued unabated, with disastrous consequences for staff and students. Staff and students are not expendable cogs in the wheels of a corporate campus.
"Universities are in strife, and the Labor government is going to make it even worse with their international student caps. Instead, they should be providing a big boost of funding to universities and overhauling university governance to put staff and students back at the centre of decision making."
