January 14, 2025

Final teaching workplace change plan announced

Staffing and teaching changes achieve $21m in recurrent savings

Following extensive consultation and feedback from staff, the University of Wollongong (UOW) today (Tuesday 14 January 2025) announced the final plan for changes to its teaching activities.

The transformation aims to address the areas of unviable teaching activity and was made necessary because of a challenging financial outlook for the university, in part due to changes to Australian Government migration policy which contributed to a $35 million drop in revenue in 2024 and which will continue to impact UOW’s future budgets.

Interim Vice-Chancellor and President Professor John Dewar expressed his gratitude to all staff who participated in the consultation process, which led to significant adjustments and improvements.

“Some disciplines originally proposed for closure will now be retained through staffing and curriculum changes, including Human Geography and some teaching in Earth Sciences, French, Spanish and English Language and Linguistics,” Professor Dewar said. 

“The Final Change Plan achieves $21 million in recurrent savings resulting from a reduction of 91.6 full time equivalent positions. To date, voluntary redundancies have been accepted for around three-quarters of those positions. 

“For our students, comprehensive teach-out plans, along with appropriate supervisory and support arrangements are in place to ensure continuity in their studies.

Of the 25 disciplines originally identified as being in-scope for the change process: 

• 15 disciplines are now finalised having achieved the required reductions in staffing and/or curriculum changes. 
• 6 disciplines are finalised in-principle but require further FTE reduction and will now move to an Expression of Interest (EOI) process to achieve viable staffing levels.  
• 4 disciplines remain unviable (Cultural Studies, Japanese, Mandarin and Science and Technology Studies) and will be disestablished.

The extensive consultation process included staff, students and stakeholders to ensure diverse perspectives and all voices were heard.

Over 100 individual and group meetings were held with affected staff, faculties, and disciplines. More than 400 feedback submissions were received from internal and external stakeholders, including academic colleagues, industry partners, alumni and community members.

“Change is never easy, but it is essential to secure UOW’s future,” Professor Dewar said.

“These adjustments allow us to respond to immediate challenges while preparing for sustained growth and excellence into the future. The steps we are taking today will ensure that UOW remains competitive, innovative and committed to delivering an outstanding student experience.”

UOW remains committed to providing affected staff with personalised, professional, and confidential support throughout this process.