[Below is an edited version of the information available on the DIISR website].

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) will launch a major campaign tomorrow, Thursday 24 July, under the banner of “Our Universities Matter – Investing in People and Society”.

Details of the launch are:

THURSDAY 24 JULY 2008, 12.45 PM

KALEIDE THEATRE,
RMIT UNIVERSITY, SWANSTON ST MELBOURNE (enter from Swanston St)

LAUNCH PARTICIPANTS:

Professor Margaret Gardner, Vice-Chancellor, RMIT University (host)

Dr Carolyn Allport, National President, NTEU
Sarah Cole, Victorian President, National Union of Students (NUS)

THE looming shortage of academic staff will mean falling standards, even larger classes, heavy reliance on part-time and imported lecturers and a loss of courses, experts say.

A SHARP increase in the age of academic staff and a looming rush to retire will create a shortage of university teachers just as two waves of school-leavers engulf post-secondary education.

The percentage of the academic workforce aged over 50 increased from 26 per cent in 1991 to 39.8 per cent in 2006, according to University of Adelaide research fellow Graeme Hugo.

The oldest baby boomers would pass 65 in 2011, so the exodus of baby boomer retirees would gather momentum during the second and third decades of the century, Professor Hugo said.