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More than 500 university tutorials have been called off and thousands of students affected as union members step up industrial action at one of the country\u2019s richest universities just weeks out from exams.<\/p>\n
University of Melbourne staff cancelled week 10 classes across all faculties in what the union says is the longest strike action at the university since 1856.<\/p>\n
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Six of Victoria\u2019s eight universities have been in enterprise bargaining negotiations for months.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Penny Stephens<\/cite><\/p>\n National Tertiary Education Union University of Melbourne branch acting president Chloe Mackenzie said staff were at breaking point.<\/p>\n The week-long strike, which started at midday on Monday, follows similar action in August by members of the Faculty of Arts, Melbourne Law School, the Victorian College of the Arts School of Art, student services, stagecraft and the library.<\/p>\n Comment has been sought from the University of Melbourne.<\/p>\n Union members have sought a 15 per cent wage increase over three years, or a pay rise in line with increases in the consumer price index (which measures inflation) plus 1.5 per cent.<\/p>\n Other concerns include job security, workloads, flexible working arrangements and limiting restructures.<\/p>\n \u201cThe University of Melbourne is a hugely rich institution with crushing workloads, wage theft and insecure work and yet in so many respects it wants to maintain the status quo,\u201d the union\u2019s Mackenzie said.<\/p>\n \u201cStaff are fed up with it and the students are too. What are they paying their fees for after all?\u201d<\/p>\n The union estimated more than 500 tutorials had been cancelled as part of the action. It is calling on Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell to personally come to the bargaining table.<\/p>\n Melbourne University Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Justin McManus<\/cite><\/p>\n Six of Victoria\u2019s eight universities \u2013 Melbourne, Monash, La Trobe, Swinburne, RMIT and Victoria University \u2013 have been in enterprise bargaining negotiations for months. Federation University has already finalised negotiations and Deakin has reached an in-principle agreement.<\/p>\n Jeff Sparrow, a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne\u2019s Centre for Advancing Journalism, said disruption varied from faculty to faculty but that the university on Tuesday felt like a ghost town. \u201cHigher education is just so deeply broken now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201c[The University of Melbourne] has got this big reputation as number 14 in the world at one stage, tonnes of money in real estate, but in all student surveys comes down the absolute bottom, they just did a recent staff survey and the level of discontent among staff is just extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n Sparrow said \u201ccorporate suits\u201d had been successful in monetising higher education and raising money from overseas students, \u201cbut in terms of delivering educational outcomes, it\u2019s been an absolute train wreck\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cUniversities are supposed to play some kind of social role and if we just turn it into this cash cow, where all that matters is money, then the society as a whole pays the consequences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n University of Melbourne Student Union president Hiba Adam said the strike action was \u201cdefinitely causing the disruptions as they are intended to\u201d but students\u2019 anger was directed at university management, not the staff.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a branch-wide strike, it\u2019s week 10, for almost all students there\u2019s only two weeks left of content,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s cutting really close to exam times. Students are definitely worried if they have enough material to prepare for exams.\u201d<\/p>\n Sparrow said: \u201cEducation should not be something that corporate. It should be seen as a public good and should be run as a public good.<\/p>\n \u201cThat just seems to me to be obvious. And if you don\u2019t do that, you end up with the kind of broken system that we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the day\u2019s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. <\/i><\/b>Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter here.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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