We’ve released draft change proposals that will change the way the university is structured. This follows 12 months of consulting with staff and students and a review of how things work.
The proposals extend across the University and are connected to a new and dedicated Students Portfolio.
The majority of roles at Charles Sturt University are not affected. The proposal will not result in any removal of courses on offer at Charles Sturt and doesn’t include academic staff in faculties or research centres and institutes.
The proposed changes could result in a reduction of around 101 currently occupied full-time equivalent positions, approximately 4.3% of our total workforce of 2,329 FTE. Around 305 staff would need to go through a process to secure a position in the proposed structures. Final outcomes will depend on consultation and recruitment to new roles.
These changes are proposals only at this point. We now need to formally consult staff before any final decisions are made and before we know how each campus is impacted.
For the last three years we’ve operated in an overall deficit and we have a backlog of costs including $70 million worth of overdue maintenance and upgrades of essential teaching and research infrastructure and we face significant additional needs for upgrades to our IT infrastructure and software. We can’t keep putting them all off without risking a major failure.
Like most universities, we also face rising costs, research funding pressures and constraints on international student numbers that are very unlikely to return to prior levels in the sector.
Our international student numbers have gone down from 8500 in 2019 to 1620 in 2025. Policy settings mean that we’re unlikely to get back to the pre-Covid numbers that used to subsidise our operations.
We’re spending more than we’re earning and need to find $35 million to become financially sustainable into the future.
This figure is the minimum we need to overcome operating expenditure deficits and establish an ongoing $20m budget to cover essential capital spend on infrastructure to repair, maintain and upgrade our infrastructure such as labs and practical teaching and research areas, farm and animal facilities and IT platforms. This includes overdue projects such as upgrading science and health facilities, installing more functional IT platforms and replacing aged core systems like heating and air conditioning.
We also need to improve our back office processes. Our reviews found that our hardworking staff were having to deal with duplication in work, fragmented work across areas and unnecessary layers. Solving these and simplifying the way we do things will make services better for students and staff in addition to reducing our funding challenges.
That’s why we need to make these changes, difficult as they are. We must make sure the university is best set up to continue serving our students and communities into the future.
We are consulting with our staff on the Draft Change Proposals. Consultation closes at 5pm on Thursday 29 October.