NTEU News 30 April 2012
The Australian 1 May 2012
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has welcomed Vice Chancellor Ian Young’s decision to abandon his so-called ‘re-positioning’ strategy for the Australian National University (ANU), that would have seen up to 150 jobs lost and the imposition of retrospective performance standards. The apparent back-down was communicated in an e-mail from the Vice Chancellor to ANU staff on 30 April.
The timeline will be two years instead of the six months originally proposed. But nothing in Young’s email to staff suggests a
reversal of the decision to target discipline areas. It is also unclear if redundancies will still be achieved, in the last resort, by auditing an academic’s track record in grants and publications.
“Redundancy may still be necessary, but we would aim to explore other processes where feasible,” Young said.
He warned “the reason for making such rationalisation is to apply resources to support academic programs that are truly world-leading.” It was “likely that this process will result in significant shifts in the mix of skills of our staff. Retraining and redeployment are potential outcomes. It is also possible that there may be a reduction in staff numbers.”
See also:
- Lame duck at ANU
