Vote Of No-Confidence Shows Overwhelming Distrust In UTS Vice-Chancellor

95 per cent of the staff who participated in a union-led vote at University of Technology Sydney (UTS), have declared they have no-confidence in the current Vice-Chancellor Andrew Parfitt.

The vote, made by National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), says more than 1500 out of 4000 staff members participated.

Dr Sarah Attfield, the Branch President at NTEU, explained that the powerful response sends a clear message to the public and UTS Council and that the staff of UTS is ready and eager to work towards a better future for UTS, but under a new leadership.

“Staff are exhausted, demoralised, and fearful. We have seen our colleagues pushed to the brink, courses slashed, and the student experience threatened—all while the VC and his executive ignore the people who keep this university running.”

“This powerful response from staff confirms what we have already known and felt deeply for many months now – the Vice Chancellor’s plans are not aligned with a public institution, and staff have little faith in his leadership,” she said.

Vote a response to Vice-Chancellor’s controversial saving initiative

The vote comes as a response to Vice-Chancellor Parfitt’s plan to implement the ‘Operational Sustainability Initiative’ which was intended to save the university $100 million in order to secure the university’s economic sustainability and long term stability.

However, the plan involved a proposed cutting of hundreds of jobs as well as suspending enrolments in over 120 courses which faced massive criticism from the UTS staff.

In September, the executives at UTS were also forced to halt their sustainability program after the workplace health and safety regulator, SafeWork NSW, declared that workers could be at risk of “serious” “psychological harm”.

“At every turn so far, staff have been met with dismissal after dismissal from UTS management,” Attfield said back in September.

“I hope this decision makes it clear to management that staff have legitimate concerns and they can’t just ram through changes that prioritise profit over people,” she added.

In a statement on their website, a spokesperson for the university explained that they have raised concerns about the integrity of the vote with the NTEU.

“We will always respect and listen to the views of our staff. However, the integrity of the vote itself is in question given complaints from some staff who tried to vote and found that their email address had already been used.”

“We have raised these serious concerns with the NTEU who advised that “it is inevitable that mistakes will be made, such as by people forgetting they have already voted”.  This is a farcical response,” the statement said.

Despite these claims, Vince Caughley, the NTEU Division Secretary explains that he thinks the vote exposes a deeper problem, and emphasises that the governance reform in NSW is now urgent.

“Multiple university managements have created crises of their own making, yet there are no formal mechanisms for staff or the public to interrogate the books, scrutinise Council decisions, or recall a Vice-Chancellor who has lost the confidence of their community. Corporations and charities have these safeguards but shamefully our public universities don’t.” 

“The NSW Government now has a clear responsibility to act to restore real public scrutiny and accountability to these crucial public institutions,” Caughley said.