Australian Higher Education Sector Faces Restructuring Amidst Job Cuts and Policy Shifts

A significant restructuring is underway within Australia’s tertiary education sector, driven by government policy changes that have precipitated widespread job cuts. This report details the developments, with a particular focus on their implications for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Quality Education (SDG 4), Decent Work (SDG 8), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), and Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions (SDG 16).

Impact on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education)

Erosion of Educational Quality and Equity

Recent actions by the Australian government and university administrations present a direct challenge to the core tenets of SDG 4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all.

• Mass Job Reductions: Over 3,000 academic and professional jobs have been targeted for elimination nationwide. Western Sydney University (WSU) alone has announced plans to cut up to 400 positions, representing over 13 percent of its full-time staff. Such cuts directly threaten the capacity of institutions to provide quality teaching and research.
• Financial Barriers to Access: The government’s retention of the “Job-Ready Graduates” package has increased tuition fees for humanities students to $17,000 annually. This policy undermines SDG Target 4.3 (equal access to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education) by creating significant financial barriers based on field of study.
• Curriculum Narrowing: The job cuts have disproportionately targeted arts and humanities departments, a move that risks stultifying the critical and historically-informed thinking essential for a well-rounded, quality education.

Shift in Educational Priorities

The government’s Universities Accord blueprint signals a fundamental realignment of the sector’s purpose, moving it away from the holistic goals of SDG 4.

• Corporate and Military Focus: The Accord demands that universities subordinate teaching and research to the needs of big business and war-related industries, such as the AUKUS nuclear submarine initiative.
• Conditional Funding: Future university funding will be tied to “mission” compacts signed with a new government commission, ensuring compliance with this new agenda. This approach prioritizes economic and military outcomes over the promotion of inclusive and diverse lifelong learning opportunities.

Contradictions with Sustainable Development Goal 8 (Decent Work)

Widespread Job Insecurity

The ongoing job cuts represent a significant regression from the aims of SDG 8, which promotes full, productive, and decent work for all.

1. The list of affected institutions includes Western Sydney University, Macquarie University, Charles Sturt University, the Australian National University, University of Canberra, University Technology Sydney (UTS), and the universities of Wollongong, Tasmania, Charles Darwin, Federation, James Cook, Southern Queensland, Griffith, La Trobe, and Swinburne.
2. At WSU, management has introduced a “voluntary redundancy” scheme. This method, reportedly first suggested by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), raises concerns about the erosion of secure employment and decent work conditions, as outlined in SDG Target 8.5.

Challenges to SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions)

Policies Undermining Equality and Institutional Integrity

Government policies are creating new forms of inequality and compromising the integrity of educational institutions, in direct opposition to SDGs 10 and 16.

• International Student Caps: The government’s plan to halve international student enrolments is framed as a measure that exacerbates inequality (SDG 10) by scapegoating a specific group for broader domestic economic issues like housing affordability.
• Militarization of Research: The pivot towards a “war economy” and tying research funding to compliance with foreign military objectives runs counter to SDG 16’s goal of promoting peaceful and inclusive societies. At least 11 universities have already experienced research funding cuts for non-compliance.
• Erosion of Academic Freedom: Actions to suppress academic dissent, including the investigation into a research grant for a prominent critic of Israeli military actions at Macquarie University, weaken the development of the accountable, effective, and inclusive institutions vital to SDG 16.

Call for Renewed Partnerships and Collective Action

Breakdown of Traditional Stakeholder Collaboration

The current situation highlights a failure in multi-stakeholder partnerships (SDG 17). The NTEU and Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) are accused of collaborating with university management to implement job cuts, rather than building a broad coalition to defend public education and decent work.

Emergence of Alternative Alliances

In response to the crisis, new forms of collaboration are being proposed from the ground up.

• Rank-and-File Committees, independent of the established union apparatuses, have formed at WSU and Macquarie University.
• These committees are calling for a unified struggle by staff and students across all universities to oppose the job cuts and the government’s agenda.
• An online public meeting has been organized to build this new coalition, aiming to forge a partnership capable of protecting the principles of public education in line with global development goals.

SDGs Addressed in the Article

SDG 4: Quality Education

• The article focuses on the tertiary education sector in Australia, detailing how government policies and university management decisions are affecting the quality and accessibility of higher education. It discusses funding cuts, increased student fees, and a shift in curriculum focus away from humanities and towards corporate and military interests.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

• A central theme of the article is the “mass destruction of jobs” in the university sector. It explicitly mentions the elimination of hundreds of academic and professional positions at Western Sydney University and thousands nationally, directly impacting the goal of full and productive employment and decent work for all.

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

• The article highlights policies that create or exacerbate inequalities. This includes the government’s plan to drastically cut international student enrolments, effectively discriminating based on origin. It also points to the “Job-Ready Graduates” package, which hikes fees for humanities students, creating financial barriers and inequality of access to different fields of study.

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

• The article discusses the transformation of universities to serve a “war economy,” citing the AUKUS plan and the alignment of research with US military objectives. This runs contrary to the promotion of peace. It also raises issues of institutional integrity and justice, such as the suppression of academic freedom by freezing research grants for critics of government policy and the lack of transparent, participatory decision-making in handling job cuts.

Specific Targets Identified

SDG 4: Quality Education

1. Target 4.3: By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.
   • The article points to a move away from this target by describing how the “Job-Ready Graduates” package has “hiked fees for humanities students to $17,000 a year,” making tertiary education less affordable and accessible. The cuts to international student numbers also limit equal access.
2. Target 4.7: By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.
   • The article indicates a direct contradiction to this target by describing a push to transform universities to serve the “development of a war economy” and the “construction of war-related industries.” Furthermore, the cuts targeting “arts and humanities” are described as a means of “stultifying critical and historically-informed thinking,” which undermines the skills needed for promoting a culture of peace and understanding.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

1. Target 8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.
   • The article details a significant regression from this target, citing plans at Western Sydney University to “eliminate up to 400 academic and professional jobs” and a national total of “more than 3,000” job cuts so far. The use of “voluntary redundancy” schemes under pressure from management and unions undermines the concept of “decent work.”

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

1. Target 10.3: Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard.
   • The government’s policy to “halve the number of international students” is a practice that reduces equal opportunity based on national origin. Similarly, the policy of hiking fees specifically for humanities students creates an inequality of outcome by making certain educational paths financially prohibitive for some.

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

1. Target 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.
   • The article suggests this target is not being met. It describes how union leaders engage in “backroom negotiations” with university management and seek to “quash staff and student outrage.” It also notes that a 99 percent vote by union members for industrial action was effectively stalled by officials, indicating that decision-making is not responsive to the will of the members.
2. Target 16.10: Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements.
   • The article provides examples of threats to fundamental freedoms, specifically academic freedom. It mentions the Education Minister instigating moves to “freeze the research grant of Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, a prominent critic of the Israeli war machine,” and the pressure on universities to align research with “US foreign policy and military objectives” to avoid funding cuts.

Indicators Mentioned or Implied

SDG 4: Quality Education

• Indicator of Affordability: The cost of tuition fees for specific courses, cited as “$17,000 a year” for humanities students.
• Indicator of Access: The number of international student enrolments, with a planned reduction “to 270,000 a year, from 548,000 in 2023.”

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

• Indicator of Employment Loss: The absolute number of jobs being eliminated, specified as “up to 400” at Western Sydney University and “more than 3,000 nationally.”
• Indicator of Workforce Reduction: The proportion of the workforce affected by job cuts, mentioned as “more than 13 percent of the university’s full-time workforce” at WSU.

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

• Indicator of Policy Impact on a Specific Group: The planned reduction in the number of international students from 548,000 to 270,000 serves as a direct measure of a policy that creates inequality of opportunity.

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

• Indicator of Infringement on Academic Freedom: The number of universities facing funding cuts for non-compliance with foreign policy objectives, stated as “at least 11 universities have suffered research funding cuts.”
• Indicator of Participatory Decision-Making: The results of member votes on industrial action, such as the vote by NTEU members at WSU where “99 percent for stoppages” was recorded, which can be contrasted with the actions taken by the institution’s leadership.

Summary of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: wsws.org