University of Newcastle opens staff consultation for restructures
Today the University of Newcastle shared with its staff details of the first structural changes proposed as it reshapes to deliver against its 2020-2025 Looking Ahead Strategic Plan and achieve financial sustainability.
The change, signalled in July, affects the five faculties that currently deliver teaching and research: The Faculty of Education and Arts, The Faculty of Business and Law, The Faculty of Science, The Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, and The Faculty of Health and Medicine.
Earlier this year, Vice-Chancellor Professor Alex Zelinsky AO announced that these Faculties would become the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, the College of Engineering, Science and Environment and the College of Human and Social Futures. Today, he released details of the structure of those Colleges.
The move to the College structure is expected to benefit students by improving their opportunities to work with industry and businesses during study, and by enhancing the University’s teaching and learning.
In today’s Consultation Paper, a new consistent structure for the three Colleges has been shared. There is a proposed net reduction of 12.9 full-time equivalent Professional (non-teaching, non-research) staff and no proposed reduction in ongoing or fixed-term Academic roles as part of the change.
If implemented, the proposed structure will deliver the University around $2.4m in recurrent annual financial savings. This figure is made up of the reduction in Professional staff roles plus a streamlining of Academic management responsibilities and some funding model changes.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Zelinsky said: “These changes are necessary to help us build a responsive, sustainable University that can deliver our Strategic Plan and address our financial challenges.
“Rather than seeking to drastically reduce staff numbers, our focus has been building strong teams with clear responsibilities, investing in strategic growth roles, and delivering efficient operations,” Professor Zelinsky said.
“We want to build on our strong reputation for helping our students to be ready for the workforce and to connect with industry so we’re meeting their workforce needs.
“Our communities need us to deliver the workforce of the future and our regions need us to be sustainable financially. This proposed College structure will help us achieve both.”
Staff feedback on the proposed changes closes on 10 December for implementation in the early part of 2021. Any redundancies identified in this process will take effect in February 2021 at the earliest.
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The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.