FRIDAY, 3.00PM
NATAL University has announced it is to cut 600 jobs, halve the number of faculties and slash the number of academic departments by three quarters, the senate said on Thursday.
According to vice-chancellor Brenda Gourley the radical cost-cutting measures have been forced by a 5% cut in this year’s government subsidy, and the likelihood that future government funding will be cut further.
Gourley said jobs will be cut “right across the board”, through attrition over five years. Unions and staff will be consulted. Certain management functions duplicated on the university’s two campuses, in Pietermaritzburg and Durban, will be centralised, with a single person taking responsibility for a particular function for both campuses. Academic departments are ecpected to be cut back from the current 120 to 30, while the 14 faculties will be pared down to seven or eight.
The cutbacks have still to be endorsed by the university council. The senat decision was taken by an “overwhelming majority” at a five-hour meeting.