1800 New Full-Time Academics Needed Over Three Years NTEU Warns. (March 12, 2009)

The National Tertiary Education Union in its budget submission to the Federal Government has warned that Australia's universities can not continue to sustain the increasing numbers of casual staff -- currently 52% -- without suffering decreases in the quality of teaching.

As immediate remedial action, the union proposed that based on merit, 600 of the casually employed academics be transferred to permanent positions, while 1200 places should be filled through the appointment of new PhDs.

According to union president Carolyn Allport the total cost to Government would be just over $105 million over four years, were each university granted a $50,000 subsidy for each placement over three years.

Dr Allport told The Canberra Times' Emma MacDonald: "We are looking at a huge retirement bulge coming up over the next few years where we will lose many of our most senior colleagues through retirement. How do we replace them and how do we encourage others to move into these positions? Many of those people have spent their entire life in academe so to replace them would not be easy.''

She went on to say: "This is the first time that someone has actually put out a particular program with objectives and targeted at certain points in the academic career cycle,'' and she indicated that discussions with the Government showed they were aware of the problem and took the matter seriously.

And the president of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, Nigel Palmer, told Ms MacDonald that postgraduate students needed to look forward to career flexibility, security and better funding, otherwise they would not enter academia. ''There are a lot of things that could make significant improvement for research students today that don't cost much money.'' He suggested increasing Australian Postgraduate Awards by 50%, exempting part-time scholarships and awards from tax and supporting workplace flexibility to recognise the average postgraduate student was 36, with financial and family responsibilities.

In the context of the Federal Government's stimulus package the proposals made by Dr Allport and the suggestions of Mr Palmer ought to be of serious concern to the Rudd Cabinet, that is if they are able to look past the next election and the timorous populism of the Turnbull/Costello Opposition.