Evidence of a ballooning executive and a concerted campaign from staff and students have not stopped cuts at UTS, with Vice-Chancellor Andrew Parfitt yesterday confirming he is pushing ahead with plans to cut 374 roles and $85 million out of the University’s budget.
Data provided to Future Campus indicates that continuing appointments of senior staff grew by more than 70% between 2017 and 2023, in the lead up to the funding crisis, while continuing professional staff rose by just over 27% and academic staff just under 10%.
Despite the growth in senior staff expertise, KPMG was contracted in on a multi-million dollar contract to help find savings, culminating in the Operational Sustainability Initiative, which plans for the loss of 374 Full Time Equivalent roles, while dispensing with just one senior staff role – that of Provost.
Data for continuing staff numbers between 2017 and 2023 provided to Future Campus indicates that senior staff numbers rose by 71.2% from 128.7 to 252.6 FTE – far higher than the growth in professional staff (27.5% growth to 1403.7 FTE) and academic roles (just 9.7% growth to 901.4 FTE).
Fixed term contracts in the senior staff group fell by around 50 FTE during the same period, but this still represents significant growth in the top end of the university’s wage bill relative to those at the coalface in the years prior to the decision to pursue large-scale staffing cuts.
This information, coupled with the recent revelations of a $4.8 million KPMG bill racked up over 4 months to help work out where to prune, will mean the university executive will win little applause for the slight haircut on its initial forecast of 400 FTE job losses – with 26 FTE roles spared in the latest plans.
A total of 209.9 Full Time Equivalent professional roles are slated to go in the latest UTS proposal, adding to existing plans to cut 167 courses and 166.8 FTE academic positions. Consultations on the plans will be wrapped up in six weeks and the total number of staff to lose their jobs will not be known until the savings plan is rolled out in full.
When asked about how many cuts were planned for the senior staff group in response to these figures, a UTS spokesperson identified one role, that of Provost, which had been eliminated and said the university had also adjusted senior leadership structures and reduced discretionary spending to reduce costs. Annual bonuses for senior staff worth up to $2.5 million a year in total had been halved in 2024 and suspended for 2025.
"UTS has undertaken a broad range of cost-saving measures over the past several years to reduce expenditure and limit the need for job losses and continues to do so."
The University’s plans to cut teaching and public health programs have triggered widespread protest, particularly over cuts to health and education programs, but the university insists it has devised plans necessary for the University’s sustainability.
It has been a long year for UTS staff and management, with a drawn out change process extended further last month when SafeWork NSW temporarily paused the cuts because of the ‘serious and imminent risk of psychological harm’ to staff as a result of its approach to reform.