Staff at La Trobe University have launched a campaign against cuts that could result in at least 350 job losses. On 16 July around 250 general and academic staff marched onto the vice-chancellor’s neatly manicured garden at the university’s Bundoora campus to protest his proposals. Fiery speeches from staff under threat called for union members to stick together to defend every single job on the chopping block.

As is typical of the university sector, management has engaged in a bare minimum of consultation with staff and their union. Their key strategy is to make positions redundant or restructure entire areas, with hundreds of current staff forced to reapply for their jobs with fewer positions on offer (otherwise known as “spill and fill”). Two new “super” colleges will replace the current five-faculty structure, with the inevitable result of reducing student support and services.

The so-called “future ready” measures are being made in response to a fictional $65 million projected budget deficit devised by vice-chancellor John Dewar. Research by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has shown, for example, that 50 per cent of the “deficit” is linked to pure speculation about “volatile markets”. According to publicly available data, the university’s operating budget in September 2013 was $100 million in surplus when it first announced there would be “inevitable job losses”.

A further protest has been called by the NTEU branch for 11 August to coincide with a university council meeting. The La Trobe University Student Union has also backed the protest, and hopes that students will show their support for the campaign against the cuts.