Rally calls for Fed Uni vice-chancellor to resign amid job cuts stoush

Held outside of the Post Office Gallery, union members, university staff and students rallied against what they say is mismanagement of the university, resulting in job cuts.

The protest came after the university announced it would slash 200 full-time equivalent jobs, due to a $20 million hole in its budget.

With a workforce of roughly 1000 full-time equivalent jobs, the demonstrators said the university was sacking one-in-five of its staff, something that would have a "devastating" impact on the quality of its education.

National Tertiary Education Union Federation University branch president Dr Verity Archer said the university would be facing a "dystopian future" if the cuts went through.

"Federation University management wants to get rid of one in five of its current workforce, already sparse degree and discipline offerings, and cut desperately needed student support services," Dr Archer said.

"This dystopian future comes off the back of five years of restructures, 25 restructures in total. This has left us with unmanageable workloads ."

Much of the crowd's anger was directed to the university's "FutureFed" program, a proposed operating model which it said would get the university back to operating surplus.

Federation University cited falling international student enrollment as a key issue spurring on the restructure - according to the university, international students fell 49 per cent between 2019 and 2023, causing a drop of $79.1 million in the university's revenue.

It is not the first time the plan has been met with backlash from the university community, with students and teachers protesting at its Mount Helen campus earlier this year against the proposal.

Eureka MP Michaela Settle spoke at Saturday's rally, and Wendouree MP Juliana Addison was in attendance.

Ballarat Trades and Labour Council secretary Brett Edgington put forward a motion at the rally calling for Federation University vice-chancellor Duncan Bentley to resign, which was met with unanimous agreement from those who attended.

"It is a public institution. Our university is not an airline or an insurance company. It is time we have a vice-chancellor and not a CEO," Mr Edgington said.

"This meeting today calls upon the vice-chancellor of Federation University to step aside and resign so that we can put in a leadership that will run this university for students and the community."

Also present at the event were marchers at an earlier pro-Palestine rally in the city.

Elsewhere in Ballarat, City of Ballarat staff and members of the Australian Services Union held signs and banners to highlight their current dispute with the council over pay.

Ballarat Art Gallery Australian Services Union delegate Jordyn Smith was one of the demonstrators outside of the gallery, and said she hoped to make the public aware of their current dispute with the council.

"A lot of the public don't realise that the gallery is part of Ballarat City Council. When we talk about how we don't get weekend penalty rates there is a lot of outrage on behalf of our visitors," Ms Smith said.

"We just really want to show the community that we work really hard to put on these amazing events like what is happening tonight (White Night), but unfortunately our employer doesn't value us like they should."

Ms Smith said workers felt "undervalued" by the council, and said they were not willing to provide a "livable" wage increase.

"This isn't about the art gallery, this is about the City of Ballarat, and them not coming to the table to negotiate a livable wage increase," Ms Smith said.

"They have used funds that they have saved off workers for the last three years. They have saved $10.98 million, and all of that has gone into capital blowouts.

"On White Night, when we do what we love doing for our community we are striking to show the council that when you undervalue and underpay your staff, we are just going to make them feel how we feel."