Geraldine Mackenzie accelerated her plans to leave the University of Southern Queensland in October last year, after a heavy deficit and plans for staff retrenchments led to a vote of no confidence.
Provost Karen Nelson stepped into the hot seat and now has the dubious honour of waving off 10% of the University’s workforce, or 150 FTE staff, following on from a cut of 109 staff late last year, as part of its Shaping Our Future organisational change program.
The University’s annual report outlines the third successive year of declining student headcount, from 24,701 to 20,288 last year. Commencing students were 7349 last year, down 20% plus on 2021. The report states immigration policy disproportionately affected regional universities, although USQ’s international student headcount as a percentage of the total stayed much the same, at just under 10% across 2021-2024.
Revenue from continuing operations was up $18m to $376m, mainly due to more Commonwealth funding but expenses increased $21m to $404m, mainly due to the new Enterprise Agreement and “corporate restructuring.” While USQ does not state so in the Financial Summary, the first surely refers to negotiated pay rises and the second to retrenchments. Staff separations were 4% in 2021 and 9%, 8% and 9% for the following three years.
The highest paid executive received between $690,000 and $704,999. The university pointed to sundry problems imposed on it that, “necessitated a planned operating deficit.” It has also encountered numerous problems with its redundancy rollout, including staff being able to see each other’s names when they accessed the university’s redundancy calculator for a short, but highly embarassing period.
If this strategy is working, Uni SQ appears to be seeking a much smaller shape for itself in future.
Elsewhere in Southern Queensland, the skies are looking much brighter.
Total income from continuing operations on QUT’s consolidated account was $1.345bn, up 12 per cent on $1.188bn in ’23. Commonwealth grants (up $55m), student fees ($28m) and investment revenue ($41m) drove the growth.
The university kept staff costs under control, up 5 per cent on ’23, to $694m, pretty much half of total revenue.
All up, the consolidated account recorded a positive net result of $78m, compared to a $20m loss in ’23.
Vice-Chancellor Margaret Sheil was paid $1.169m last year, down from $1.198m in ’23. Her base salary was up $120,000, but she did not receive a “short-term” bonus last year – she did in 2023, ($151,000). But alas, for anybody looking for comparisons over time, the university states, actual salary for the two years is reported, “without accounting treatments for leave. This approach is different from previous years reporting.”