Ageing staff an imminent crisis at unis

The National Tertiary Education Union has called on the federal government to spend $105 million to attract recent PhD graduates and convert casual employees into full-time positions to ensure the nation's ageing academic workforce is replaced.

At the launch of its workforce development policy in Canberra last week, NTEU president Carolyn Allport called the issue of an ageing workforce an "imminent crisis" for universities.
"It's because the academic workforce is ageing - and ageing more quickly than we are replacing them," she said.

Council of Australia Postgraduate Associations president Nigel Palmer, who launched the policy with the NTEU, said immediate action was required because of the "significant" lead time in graduating and supporting world-class academics.

"You can't just pull an associate professor out of thin air - it takes some time to find motivated individuals, to hone their skills and become future leaders in higher education," he said.

The federal government's Bradley review into higher education identified an ageing academic workforce as an issue. The panel was concerned about the high number of staff aged over 50 in disciplines such as education and mathematics.

Under the NTEU's policy, an extra 1800 full-time appointments would be created, defined as either training and development placements for recent PhD graduates, or so-called secure employment placements to convert casuals into full-time work.

Each placement would attract a $50,000 a year subsidy for a maximum of three years.
The total cost of the policy would be $105 million over four years, with the cost to be offset by scrapping the workforce development program.

The NTEU recommends that a taskforce of representatives from the sector make key decisions over the distribution of the places.