THE Australian National University will shed around 230 jobs, increase parking fees and offer a voluntary early retirement scheme in a package of budget measures, announced ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young at Llewellyn Hall today. 

The University, which is expected to lose $23 million next year and $28 million in 2015, plans to slash the number of professional staff by at least 10 per cent, with around 230 jobs to go before the end of 2013 to allow the university to find $51 million in savings.

Staff members over 55 are expected to be the first to be targeted and offered a voluntary early retirement scheme.

Other changes announced by Professor Young include an increase to parking and a 15.5 per cent increase for international student fees by 2015.

Professor Young also announced an immediate pay increase of 2 per cent for all ANU staff, and a further 2 per cent increase to be paid in 2014 at a cost of $15 million each year.

The National Tertiary Education Union are pursuing the ANU after the changes, seeking a “competitive pay rise that respects the contribution staff members make to the efficient operation of the institution.”

“The union deplores the cuts to funding for the higher education sector that have forced the ANU to make these drastic decisions,” said union ACT Division President Deborah Veness.

“The consequences for students and staff are ominous. The ANU prepares graduates to be future custodians of disciplinary knowledge within the academy, where they go on to become researchers or university teachers, or to take their disciplinary knowledge into the workplace to solve the problems of industry, government, and society. Without these graduates, the nation will be less.”