Deakin calls off restructure and apologises for ‘unsettling’ staff

Deakin University’s leaders have called off a contentious restructure and apologised over an “unsettling” fortnight that saw hundreds of employees threatened with retrenchment.

In an email to staff, chancellor Claire Higgins and caretaker vice-chancellor Matthew Clarke said they had decided not to proceed with organisational changes that were unveiled on 4 June. “Your roles continue as they are,” the email says. “The focus now is on stability and getting on with the work that matters.

“We know this period has been unsettling, and that the uncertainty has weighed on many of you. We are sorry for that.”

Times Higher Education understands that the governing council and much of the executive had been taken by surprise by the proposals. The council had been consulted on the plans but had not approved them and had been given details only after the proposals were made public, despite having oversight of workforce strategy and compliance with employment law.

Insiders believe the council had intended to call off the restructure following the abrupt departure of Iain Martin as vice-chancellor, five days after the restructure was announced, but had been advised that it could not do so while formal consultations – due to conclude on 19 June – were under way.

The council now appears to have overridden that advice, cancelling the restructure hours before a scheduled meeting with union leaders on 18 June. A Deakin spokesman said the decision had been taken “after listening to our staff and community”.

The proposed changes were “substantial and complex, and the feedback has made clear we need to rethink our approach”, the spokesman said. “Change will still be needed in time, but it must be the right change, and we will keep listening as we work that through.”

Key administrators including executive deans are understood to have been blindsided by the restructure plan. They were surprised again when Martin did not show up for a scheduled meeting on the day his departure was announced. The meeting was chaired instead by Higgins.

Despite their closely guarded nature, the proposals had been developed in great detail. A 206-page document identifies about 600 “open selection” positions requiring a full recruitment process, including application and interview. Another 60-odd were subject to expressions of interest because they had “no clear match” with current positions.

A dispute notification lodged on 15 June by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) contended that the proposals breached Deakin’s 2023 enterprise agreement because staff had not been told the purpose of the changes beyond “vague and aspirational mission statements”. Three documents purportedly justifying the restructure – a “current state analysis”, an “academic portfolio review” and an “infrastructure and digital review” – had not been shared with staff or the union.

The NTEU said the “default” two-week consultation period was “manifestly inadequate” for changes affecting at least one-quarter of the workforce. It said time frames outlined in the change documentation – two weeks to consider feedback before communicating the outcomes, with implementation of the changes to start in July – suggested that decisions had been “predetermined…prior to consultation”.

The union has since claimed credit for saving more than 140 jobs and said it had held “strongly constructive discussions” with Higgins and Clarke after the restructure was cancelled. “These cuts would have had a devastating impact on livelihoods and torn at the fabric of the entire university,” said state secretary Sarah Roberts.

NTEU president Alison Barnes said that universities needed “major national governance reform so million-dollar vice-chancellors can’t wield the axe with impunity”.

The union wants Deakin to set up a working party of staff, students and management to “establish best-practice protocols for any future major workplace change proposals”.

It is unclear how many staff lodged applications for voluntary redundancy while the consultation was under way. THE understands that these applications will now be disregarded.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com