Staff at Flinders University increasingly concerned as department restructure looms

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Staff at Flinders University are growing increasingly concerned that the proposed restructure of two major departments would result in job losses. The ABC understands six marine scientists would lose their jobs. The university says no decision has been made. The final structure proposal is expected to be released next month.

Transcript

00:00Scientists like Johan Kempf have spent the last six months researching South Australia's

00:08toxic algal bloom.

00:10I was the first to say, based on scientific methods, that the algal bloom will actually

00:15not disappear.

00:17It will hang around and it will very likely come back in the next summer at full strength.

00:22The Flinders University oceanographer is one of 30 academics who could lose their jobs

00:27under a proposed restructure.

00:30The ABC understands six of those workers are internationally recognised marine scientists.

00:36The skills that you lose is actually understanding algae blooms, or if there's mass strandings

00:44of whales, you know, if there's a marine heatwave, what are the impacts?

00:49We need lots of people with this expertise to monitor what's happening during the algal

00:53bloom.

00:54I think without this staff it would be difficult for Flinders to play a major role in any kind

00:59of future environmental monitoring.

01:01It's not just scientists who could be affected by the proposed changes.

01:05Flinders staff have told the ABC 70 PhD students could lose access to their supervisors.

01:12This is really concerning because it's not as easy as just finding another supervisor, because

01:16there won't be people with exactly the same expertise.

01:20The university is also consulting on a separate proposal to dismantle its College of Humanities,

01:25Arts and Social Sciences.

01:28Those courses would shift to other colleges.

01:30I study English and I study English literature and now it's sort of just really over-complicated

01:36that that's not a humanities topic.

01:38Having those interactions with people in like our theory classes is really nice.

01:43It makes it feel like a uni experience.

01:45The university says both proposals would result in an overall increase in academic staff and

01:50there will be no changes to student study programs.

01:54The university says it's committed to supporting the algal bloom response.

01:58A final decision on the proposals is expected next month.

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