Our unis.
Our future.
The higher education sector in NSW is in crisis.
More than 1,200 jobs are under threat across five universities including UTS, Macquarie, WSU, Wollongong, and CSU. These aren’t just numbers. They’re people’s livelihoods. They’re the lecturers, librarians, IT, professional staff, researchers, and student support staff that are the heart of our universities.
These cuts are happening now. They’re part of a wider shift in how universities are run, from public institutions grounded in education, equity and critical thinking, to corporatised, managerial entitiesdriven by revenue targets, private consultancy firms, and bloated executive salaries.
Staff are being treated as costs to be cut, not people and communities to be supported. Students are losing courses, services and learning conditions. At UTS, SafeWork NSW is currently investigating psychosocial hazards caused by these restructures. The consequences are immediate and severe.
NTEU members across the state are already taking incredible action to defend their jobs and their institutions, but the more of us there are, the stronger we’ll be.
This campaign is about fighting back and defending jobs now but also reshaping the future so this crisis can never be manufactured again. We’re calling for stronger protections for workers, democratic oversight of university leadership, and a vision for higher education that puts staff, students and communities first.
Protest
AFR Higher Education Summit Tue 19 August
While staff are losing jobs, students are losing courses, and campuses are being hollowed out, university VCs and their corporate consultants will be inside the Fullerton Hotel attending the Australian Financial Review’s so-called Higher Education Summit.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t a summit to fix the crisis in higher education, it’s a summit to manage the decline. To rebrand job cuts as “transformation.” To sell off the public mission of our universities in the language of productivity, innovation, and consultancy slides.
Those responsible for cutting jobs and corporatising higher education are meeting to discuss our future without us. There’s no representation from workers or their union, just consultants, politicians and industry lobbyists.
So members, unionists, students and the university community are coming together to make sure we’re heard. Join us in rallying outside the summit, making it clear to the so-called ‘decision makers’ of our institutions that they can’t lock us out of our own future.
ENDORSED BY
