Several hundred academics and students will today stage a rally at the Australian National University to protest $40 million in proposed budget cuts and the loss of up to 150 jobs.
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It will be the largest public demonstration since 1997 when staff and students fought course cuts and won a reprieve against 500 proposed redundancies in the wake of savage Howard government budget cuts.
Vice-chancellor Ian Young announced last month that the ANU's surplus was down to $14 million following a $30 million fall on investment this year, a $26 million rise in service costs and a $10 million increase in depreciation costs.
He warned that if spending was not reduced ''we will be unable to invest in excellence, and will suffer a gradual decline in international standing and quality''.
But the National Tertiary Education Union believes the university's bottom line is not in such a precarious position and has rejected outright any job losses or cuts to research functions.
NTEU ACT secretary Stephen Darwin said: ''The so-called financial crisis being used by the vice-chancellor to justify his strategy is a manufactured one.''
The union is awaiting the latest financial details from this year's ANU annual report but has been told the data cannot be released until the report is tabled in Parliament after the May 8 budget.
Mr Darwin said the rally was ''an opportunity for the ANU community to publicly reject vice-chancellor Young's so-called 'repositioning strategy' for the institution''.
More than 40 staff have taken up union membership since Professor Young made his initial announcement last month and Mr Darwin noted the union had received more than 100 copies of submissions to the vice-chancellor regarding his plans, all of which had been negative.
According to one academic's submission: ''I believe ANU staff, both academic and general, are hardworking and regularly contribute many more hours than they are remunerated for. Workloads and work intensification are reported as being a real and continuing issue at ANU for which this proposal will only have negative consequences.''
Macquarie, La Trobe, Victoria University and the University of Sydney also announced job losses in the past year. Today's rally will hear from the University of Sydney's NTEU branch president Michael Thomson about plans to cut $63 million from the budget and up to 350 academic and general staff positions.
Fair Work Australia ordered university management to better consult with staff.
But Mr Darwin said more worrying was the attempt by both the University of Sydney and ANU to introduce retrospective performance measures in order to target redundancies.
More than 800 staff and students rallied at Sydney last week.
ANU Students Association president Dallas Proctor said a strong student presence was expected today as the ANU's student body was ''fully against the proposed cuts and scared about what it could do to the standard of our education''.
Professor Young is expected to outline the next step in budget reductions and the outcome of his consultation round next month.
The rally begins at 12.30 in Union Court.
