Redundancy program opens at La Trobe University as crisis for Border's universities looms: job cuts "a last resort"

Staff across La Trobe's six campuses will have until next Friday to take up voluntary redundancies, after the university achieved $72 million in savings.

Albury-Wodonga's campus contributed $250,000 to that, by standing down up to 10 casual staff and finding other non-salary savings.

But a downturn of up to $350 million over two years means the university "will inevitably become a smaller institution", Vice-Chancellor John Dewar told staff in a lengthy email.

"If we do not close the budget gap ... we will have no alternative but to consider further job losses," he said.

"This is our last resort and we are doing everything we can to avoid this."

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Wodonga principal Vern Hilditch, who joined La Trobe's Albury-Wodonga Regional Advisory Board this year, said the "crisis" would be fully realised in 2021.

"The influence of international fee-paying students, in terms of the finance they bring, will have a very strong ripple effect," he said.

"We would be really keen to make sure La Trobe Albury-Wodonga is able to continue to provide, if not expand, in the areas it's currently working in ... even if they are online."

Mr Hilditch saw no indication of campus closures in La Trobe's correspondence.

"There certainly has been no statement made that La Trobe will be concentrating on maintaining Bundoora at the expense of the other campuses," he said.

"This does rely on the federal government guaranteeing university funding.

"I was encouraged to hear what [Chancellor] John Brumby was saying, that they were going to push the regional agenda ... to make sure the federal government implements funding from the Napthine review."

La Trobe Albury-Wodonga Regional Advisory Board chair Sarah Crooke also told The Border Mail a commitment to regional campuses had been expressed.

"I was pleased to hear they are focused on minimising the impact on their students and are looking at all avenues to maintain the staff they have, who they really value," she said.

Professor Dewar said domestic student numbers had "held up well".

"However, this does not redress the shortfall caused by the loss of a significant number of international students; and in any event, the federal government has guaranteed the payments that were already in the budget in respect of domestic students," he said in the email.

"Our estimate is that this government guarantee will bring in about $5 million that we would not otherwise have - helpful, but not a lifesaver in the context of the scale of our revenue shortfall."

Indi MP Helen Haines recently met with both Professor Dewar and Charles Sturt Vice-Chancellor Andrew Vann - who announced a big review of CSU with likely job cuts last week.

Dr Haines said it was clear in institution-wide plans the Border's campuses "would not be exempt from any of the potential job losses".

"They made it clear to me that they're worried for their capacity to maintain multiple campuses across the regions," she said.

"I have written to the Minister for Education Dan Tehan highlighting my concern for university education on the Border.

"I've asked that the federal government provide an increase in the regional loading for universities ... I would be imploring that Minister Tehan meet with them.

"In that Napthine Review, there's significant measures around the support to regional universities and what we've got now is this extraordinary situation where universities have been excluded from JobKeeper. This is all compounding."

According to a 2015 analysis, Charles Sturt University - which has had an Albury campus since its formation in a merger in 1989 - had 1786 internal students enrolled in 2013, supporting 892 jobs and adding $104.2 million gross regional product.

La Trobe's campus in Wodonga was established in 1991, and in 2009 was contributing $50.3 million to the city's GRP with 950 students and 515 jobs supported.

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There were 555 enrolments in 2019, and currently 518 students are studying at the Border campus (currently they have been moved online).

"A small number of students have remained in residence on campus throughout the pandemic," a university spokeswoman said.

"The first students to return to face-to-face teaching when they are able to will be students studying clinical subjects that require hands-on learning."