University Staff Clash with Management Amid Mass Job Cuts
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- 14 hours ago
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Physicist Ivan Maksymov from Charles Sturt University is among the 3,500 university staff across Australia who have lost their jobs as the sector faces a deepening crisis.
For Dr. Maksymov, it’s the second redundancy in just three years, and the impact has been devastating.
“It derails my career. I’m the only breadwinner, so it’s the only source of income and we have two kids to feed,” he said.
It’s a tough fall for a researcher once awarded a prestigious Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council. Instead of building on that success, he says his time in academia is now overshadowed by a “humiliating” redundancy process that exposes what he calls the sector’s “ugly underbelly.”
“Unis have become like corporations. They have stakeholders — but those stakeholders aren’t the public or the students who come for a quality education. Management thinks in corporate terms. They think about the bottom line,” he said.
Like many in his position, Dr. Maksymov is finding it hard to see a way forward. With universities nationwide slashing costs, the chances of finding work in his highly specialised field look slim. And he’s not alone — many staff spend a decade or more studying and working to carve out a career, only to end up facing unemployment.
Charles Sturt University is one of 39 public universities tightening belts, blaming a 90% collapse in international student numbers over the past five years. In a statement, the uni said it regretted the impact on staff.
“Charles Sturt University deeply regrets the need to reduce its staff numbers and the impact on those whose jobs are proposed to be disestablished, including Dr. Maksymov,” a spokesperson said.“But the necessity of these actions is undeniable.”
Dr. Maksymov, however, argues the process was handled poorly, leaving staff distressed and excluded from genuine consultation.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has echoed his concerns, accusing 22 universities across five states and territories of mishandling mass redundancies. Between 2024 and 2025 alone, the union says more than 3,500 jobs were cut.
More updates to come on AusNewsLanka.
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