The NSW Auditor General reports NSW’s ten public universities underpaid staff $183m in 2023, up from $110m in 2022. It was the result of, “complexity in enterprise agreements and inconsistent interpretation of the terms.”
“Universities should prioritise remediation of wage underpayments” the AG recommends.
In other examples of ineptitude, the AG reports seven of the ten have cyber security risks that are higher than what they consider acceptable and none have met the requirement in the Commonwealth’s Security of Critical Infrastructure Act to identify critical systems, functions and data.
The AG also repeats its regular warning that the system faces a “concentration risk” through dependence on international student revenue from China, India and Nepal – 40 per cent of total income from students and 70 per cent of internationals.
Nor was ’23 a great financial year. Eight universities lost money, with total expenses up $1.4bn to $12.6bn, against a 13 per cent increase in revenue to, $12.5bn. Cost increases were driven in considerable part by pay rises, a 4.3 per cent rise in academic strength, and a 9 per cent increase in professional staff.
A thumping 12 per cent increase in overseas student EFTS and earnings, paid for some of the cost climb, compared to 2.6 per cent drop in locals. State-wide domestic EFT enrolments last year were 194 000, down 5.4 per cent on 2019.
The big successes of the year were Sydney’s two Group of Eight members. UNSW wound back its 2022 loss and increased fees and charges by $168m, a 3 per cent lift on 2019 and a big recovery on 2020, when student income (ex-Commonwealth funding) was down nearly 13 per cent pre pandemic. Uni Sydney sailed through the pandemic and reached $1.9bn in student income last year.
Last year the pair accounted for 64 per cent of NSW public universities’ international student revenue.
Which may not be a number they want Education Minister Jason Clare to notice as caps on international enrolments are set.
