Perth Voice Interactive

UP to 25 administrative staff face losing their jobs at Edith Cowan University as it abolishes faculties and merges schools.

At this stage it is unclear how many staff based at the Mt Lawley campus may be affected.

The reorganisation will see 14 schools merge into eight, and report directly to the vice-chancellor. Around 100 people will be affected but ECU has so far found alternative positions for 75.

“We are not a huge university by Australian standards and yet we have four faculties and 14 schools—that’s a lot of administration going on,” says VC Steve Chapman.

“We would like a flatter structure, and there was overwhelming support for that because the level of bureaucracy we have essentially inhibits what we want to do in research and teaching.

“Taking out that middle layer will improve our flexibility and make us more agile in research and education.”

ECU announced last month it’s splashing $5 million on a new communications and arts hub at its Mount Lawley campus and wants 20 new international professors hired, to increase its research capability.

Gabe Gooding, WA secretary for the national tertiary education union, says the university is more concerned about its research ranking than its staff: “Rather than thinking of students as paying customers, and themselves as a commercial entity, ECU should focus its attention on core public university values and valuing the role of students as students,” she says.

The cuts are planned to be in place by January.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK