The University of Sydney has advised 100 academics that they could lose their positions by July as a result of budget cuts.
Another 64 academics have been offered voluntary redundancy, according to a university statement on 20 February.
The 64 have been “given the option to move to a teaching-focused role”, the university said. After a period of three years, there is “a possibility they could propose returning to a teaching and research role,” the statement said.
The move follows a university announcement in November that it planned to cut costs by 7.5 per cent.
In accordance with the university’s strategic Final Change Plan, published on 17 February, assessment of research output has been used as criteria in the redundancy process.
“The assessment of relative academic research performance will be based on research outputs as defined in the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) guidelines, or equivalent research output,” the Plan states.
These include authored books and book chapters, journal and conference articles, and original creative works.
Final decisions on redundancies will be made next month, the university has said.