Update on Plans for a Sustainable VU:
Course rationalisation, staff redundancies and financial sustainability
Tuesday 9th December 2008
Dear Colleagues,
I am sure that you are looking forward to the break in a few weeks time. The advice in this email should give you a better sense of the situation at this stage on VU’s major sustainability initiatives so you can organise the rest of your year with some peace of mind.
I have listed the headlines for you to skim - with web links for the detail on those aspects that interest you most.
- Council last night approved the 2009 Budget and $27m in savings
- Progress on savings in HE continues while building on our strengths
- Changes to HE courses and units are now in a HE Change Plan
- HE staff separations have been extended to voluntary options
- Other savings measures
- HE Change Plan has now been released for discussion (attached)
- Meetings on FE, VE and HEW staffing are going ahead
- VU is turning its attention to the Bradley Report, expected soon
Council last night approved the 2009 Budget and $27m in savings
The budget approved last night will be a key document for use by everyone in 2009. For full details on the Budget, including my Introduction, refer to: http://intranet.vu.edu.au/Finance/pdf_files/2002_budget_draft4Feb/2009BudgetDocument.pdf.
We still have a lot of work to do together on the savings plan in the first few months of the New Year. While some non salary savings have been identified, the bulk of the $27m will have to come from savings in employment costs.
A special Sustainability Office is being established to work with managers across VU on both staffing changes and other savings initiatives. At Council’s request we will then be providing Council with detailed advice on the strategies that are linked to the full $27m at the April 2009 Council meeting.
Progress on savings in HE continues while building on our strengths
The process to identify savings has continued in Higher Education over recent weeks.
Firstly, we have had to face and to address the limitations in our data on HE units, courses and staff workloads. Secondly, senior staff members have been working closely to address these challenges and produce the HE Change Plan. Thirdly, there has been an unfortunate coincidence of timing with external commentary about the future of HE in Australia. This has added to
speculation and anxieties of some of our staff. The conversations will be better informed when the Bradley Report, now imminent, is made public.
Changes to HE courses and units are now in a HE Change Plan
The HE Change Plan advises which courses and units we propose to discontinue from 2009.
The proposal to discontinue from 2009 approximately 140 HE courses and over 500 units is just one step in our efforts to focus our teaching and staff resources on VU’s strengths. This still leaves over 200 courses and over 1,700 units of courses and units that remain on VU’s books for students to take. I am talking to ERB about the progress we have made and what else needs to be done on Wednesday.
The massive task undertaken over the past two months to assess the viability of every HE unit and course will now form the basis for the creation of a Course and Unit Management System that will be used to maintain a sustainable teaching profile in HE. The system will be managed centrally by the PVC (IS).
HE staff separations have been extended to voluntary options
We have not yet made the progress we need to make to reduce our staffing costs because of problems in compiling accurate data about HE staff and their individual workloads. This work is continuing. Feedback from the HE Faculty leadership, staff and the President of the VU Branch of the NTEU, Richard Gough, has suggested that voluntary separation options and other savings measures be considered to mitigate the need for as many targeted redundancies. This request has been agreed to and therefore no targeted HE academic redundancies will be made in 2008. The NTEU has been informed of our progress.
Details of separation options available to eligible HE staff are described in the HE Change Plan and will be available on the HR intranet site from tomorrow. Eligible HE academic staff will be invited to submit an EOI to separate from the University. Please note that EOIs need to be submitted by 16 January; affected staff will be notified of the outcome of their EOI by 2 February 2009.
Other savings measures
Other savings strategies are being explored by the three Executive Deans and their staff, including the cost of sessional staffing (estimated at $12m in 2008) and changes in teaching practices (eg tutorial sizes and time-tabling). All strategies are to be set out in Internal Partnership Contracts (IPCs) with itemised savings for 2009 at the level of each Faculty and its Schools.
And in addition, we are improving our data collection, with workload data of each HE academic will henceforth be collected on a central data bank, as well as in their Schools.
HE Change Plan has now been released for discussion
The purpose of the HE Change Plan is to inform staff of the scope of the changes proposed under the first phase of 2008 Plan for a Sustainable VU and to provide staff with the opportunity to comment on the proposed actions over the next two weeks. The HE Change Plan can be accessed at: http://intranet.vu.edu.au/wp/sustainablevu/Documents/ChangePlan.pdf.
The release of this document begins a 2 week consultation period with staff, between now and 23 December. We invite feedback on the plan, including courses and units and mitigation strategies. I encourage you all to read the Plan carefully and let your views be known by sending your feedback to ProjectManager@vu.edu.au.
Meetings on FE / VE and HEW staffing are going ahead
Following the changes in HE positions, change plans for VE / FE and HEW staff will be developed. Principles and processes for the change process for HEW staff will be agreed with managers in December. Meetings are now being organised to begin discussing the process for reducing employment costs and other savings initiatives in these areas. FE /VE and HEW Change Plans will be distributed as the next step in the consultation process for staff in these areas. A date will be set for issuing these plans following these consultative processes.
VU is turning its attention to the Bradley Report, expected soon
Colleagues, we are all acutely aware that staff members across VU are facing uncertainty and the events of the past six weeks have been particularly hard in the HE faculties. The process is nonetheless giving us a much clearer picture of our course strengths as well as the contributions made by so many of our staff. We are building VU’s financial fitness for a future shaped by contestability, the Bradley Report and global economic change. We will issue a VU comment on Bradley developments as soon as these are known.
I thank staff members across all parts of VU who have helped as we have developed a clearer picture of our teaching and research strengths.
Together, we will ensure that VU has the resources we need to offer the right courses from Certificate to PhD, at the right campuses, with the right staff – for VU students.
Liz Harman
Vice Chancellor
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