Union Takes UTS To Fair Work To Halt Course Suspensions

The National Tertiary Education Union has this week launched an action in the Fair Work Commission to stop course suspensions at the University of Technology Sydney.

The union is arguing university management breached its own policies by announcing the widespread suspensions last week without consulting faculty boards. 

It comes as UTS suspends new enrolments for 146 courses across six faculties in preparation for a redundancy program dubbed Operational Sustainability Initiative (OSI) aiming to to save the university $100 million.

Part of the initiative includes cutting the jobs of an estimated 400 staff, approximately 10 per cent of the university’s current workforce, before the end of the year.

“Students and staff deserve decisions made in the open, not behind closed doors and certainly through being drip-fed crucial documents in PowerPoint ‘workshops’,” said NTEU General Secretary Dr Damien Cahill. 

“The path forward is simple: stop the suspensions, show the evidence and do the consultation properly. If management won’t do that voluntarily, we will pursue every avenue to make sure they do.”

NTEU UTS Branch President Dr Sarah Attfield accused university administrators of “redundancy by stealth”.

“Suspending courses mid-consultation undermines academic integrity, destabilises student pathways and shreds staff confidence,” she said.

“Management can’t pick and choose which policies to obey. If they want to restructure, they must follow the rules, show the evidence and listen to the people who teach and support students.”

Parliamentary inquiry announced for a sector in crisis

Earlier this month, NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said academics were being treated with “utter contempt” by university management, who she claimed “would rather spend $5 million on external consultants to cut jobs than invest in staff – the university’s most precious resource.”

“We need real reform to restore accountability and transparency in our universities, which must prioritise staff, students and society instead of corporate business models imposed by overpaid executives.”

An NTEU survey of 380 staff at UTS found 35 per cent were experiencing very high levels of psychological distress following the implementation of OSI, with SafeWork NSW investigating its impact.

The news comes after the announcement of a parliamentary inquiry into the state’s university sector, following extensive course cuts, an over-reliance on consulting firms, and severe financial mismanagement, including massively overblown Vice Chancellor salaries.

The tension is being felt at all levels. Earlier this year, almost 70 per cent of Australian universities suffered a drop in the annual 2026 QS World University Rankings, in what critics dubbed a “wake up call” for the sector.

“UTS belongs to its students and staff as a public institution,” Dr Attfield said. We will not let executive shortcuts decide the future of our courses, our jobs and our community.”