In November 2008, the NTEU conducted an all-staff survey of the tertiary education sector, seeking views and attitudes towards the Bradley Review and conditions in the sector.
The results of the survey are available for download (pdf, 485kb).
You can also read our media release here.
Introduction from the Report
Over 3000 staff, from across the 8 Victorian Universities have responded to a NTEU survey of their perceptions of the state of higher education. Just under half of the respondents had academic/teaching/research positions and half holding were administrative/technical/general staff positions. Women made up 57% of respondents (similar to women’s employment patterns in the sector) and men 43%, and the majority of respondents were full time permanent staff.
The responses paint a gloomy picture of the state of the sector. Over 70% of respondents felt that the quality of education at their institution was suffering as a result of funding limitations, and 60% of respondents felt that their institution was more focused gaining income than on student outcomes. These perceptions are borne out by the reality that government no longer provides the majority of income for the University sector, and that the sector is indeed heavily reliant on overseas students for its survival. A further consequence of the declining levels of government funding is that local students are paying more than ever before for their University education, with Australia having amongst the highest private and student expenditure on tertiary education in the OECD.
As well as asking staff how they felt about the state of the sector overall, the survey also covered questions about how staff felt their own university managements were coping with the challenges before them. The survey posed questions about how staff felt about how change was handled in their institution, and how much consultation occurred around big decisions. The survey also endeavored to get a sense of whether staff felt that they were respected and valued by their university managements’, and what levels of confidence staff felt in their Vice Chancellors.
The NTEU conducted a similar survey at the end of 2007. This survey shows that attitudes towards university senior management have declined dramatically.
