A regional Australian university has revealed plans to cut the equivalent of 150 full-time jobs, in a sign that a wave of retrenchments sweeping the sector is far from over.

The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) said its programme to ¡°secure long-term financial sustainability¡± would start with a call for voluntary redundancies.

Acting vice-chancellor Karen Nelson said USQ was ¡°navigating significant financial pressures¡± driven by rising costs and variable funding. She said the university¡¯s spending had exceeded its earnings by 7 per cent and it needed to reduce its operating costs.

¡°To thrive in an evolving higher education landscape, we must align our workforce and operations to meet the changing needs of our students, communities and industries.¡±

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The proposal comes after 109 staff left last year, through 85 redundancies and 24 early retirements.

Of the 11 Australian universities that have so far published their 2024 financial accounts, USQ was the only one to record a deficit. The A$28 million (?13 million) shortfall was its third in a row, each bigger than the last.

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The university flourished in the early years of Covid-19, partly insulated by its relatively low proportion of international students. It also reaped a A$83 million windfall from the 2021 redistribution of shares?from international education services business IDP.

But its expenses have soared since 2022, with a 24 per cent surge in its employment costs adding A$55 million to its outlays last year. Staff numbers rose 3 per cent over that period, and a new enterprise agreement in 2023 has added 7.5 per cent to the wage bill so far.

National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) USQ branch president Andrea Lamont-Mills said last year¡¯s redundancy payments had cost the institution almost A$13 million. She said many of the roles slated for removal in the forthcoming restructure had previously been deemed critical.

Lamont-Mills, whose academic role is also marked for deletion, said executives now considered the university¡¯s employment profile too ¡°middle management-heavy¡± for an institution of its size. ¡°Of course, senior management were the ones that determined that we needed that¡­level of middle management only very recently.

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¡°This is not a financial issue. This is a leadership issue. We¡¯ve had declining student numbers since 2020 but we¡¯ve had increasing staffing. Suddenly we¡¯re in 2025 and it¡¯s a crisis. The union and members believe that this should have been addressed well before.¡±

Nelson said the restructure proposal included rationalising USQ¡¯s 12 schools into eight, ¡°to simplify structures, reduce bureaucracy and focus resources where they can have the greatest impact¡±. She committed to a ¡°staged consultation process¡± throughout the six-month restructure and said no final decisions would be made before October.

Nelson has performed as vice-chancellor since last October when former leader Geraldine Mackenzie retired early. The university said it was recruiting a permanent replacement this year.

USQ had a setback in the Fair Work Commission in February, when the employment watchdog ?a union complaint that the university had not consulted staff adequately over the 2024 redundancies.

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The NTEU said USQ had avoided its obligation to consult all affected staff, rather than just those directly impacted, by treating last year¡¯s retrenchments as a series of isolated mini-restructures rather than one overarching ¡°major change¡±. The commission sided with the union and directed the university to consult more broadly in the coming restructure.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com