After ten days of uproar at Deakin U, Chancellor Claire Higgins yesterday cancelled ready to-go jobs cuts in the Academic and Infrastructure-Digital portfolios, “after listening to colleagues and the community.”
But one staffer had already gone – former VC Iain Martin, who resigned and left on the same day last week, with Ms Higgins announcing but not explaining his extraordinary exit.
In a joint statement with caretaker VC Matthew Clarke yesterday, the Chancellor said both Executive and Council support the decision, which ends the current risk of redundancies or having to compete for new positions for hundreds of staff, “Your roles continue as they are,” they said.
They explained the cancellation as being based on the university’s core purpose, “Deakin exists to deliver outstanding research, teaching and student support. That purpose guides every significant decision we make, and it has guided this one.”
The announcement came a day ahead of the end of the required consultation period for the job cuts. This will help end detailed criticism of the proposed structures by rank-and-file staff and the university branch of the National Tertiary Education Union. Some Faculty leaders were also in open revolt this week. And it will reduce the risk of job security becoming a bigger issue in imminent negotiations for a new enterprise agreement.
But Higgins and Clarke also warned it only delays the savings day. “Our focus on research, teaching and student support will not change, nor will the financial realities facing the sector and the university. Change will still be needed in time.” Deakin’s 2025 annual report predicts a return to deficit in 2026 and a projected $200m decline in international student income was being discussed this week.
But next time will be no easier, unless management convince staff to accept job losses and operating changes. Higgins and Clarke told the Deakin community that “the lesson we are taking from this” is change must be “shaped with you.”
This is the second precedent in 12 months of a union-activist staff revolt forcing management to backdown on savings. There is no public reason why Deakin U’s council gave in, but the division at ANU, where the governing body collapsed into warring factions over a restructure cannot have escaped members.
The message for all university managements for now is that the workers, united can never be defeated (in 2026, at least).