CPA - The Guardian

“The Queensland Treasury’s Financial Viability Review of Central Queensland (CQ)University forecasts that its financial profile is so weak that it could exhaust its cash and liquidity in 2011,” said Margaret Lee, National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Queensland secretary.

“We are not at all surprised that the financial situation is so grim, since we have known that the University was in trouble for years,” Ms Lee said, “but we welcome the Review as providing helpful and accurate advice of the actual financial situation facing the university management,” Ms Lee said.

“This is exactly the kind of independent assessment CQUniversity’s new Vice Chancellor, Professor Scott Bowman, needs as he develops his strategy to enable CQUniversity to take its place as one of the key regional universities in the country,” she added. “The region it serves is rich in opportunities for engagement, but they have been squandered.”

As John Fitzsimmons, NTEU CQU branch president, has said, “It’s as if CQUniversity is located in a field of corn, and yet we are starving because Management can’t see or grasp the opportunities in that field.”

“Regrettably, CQUniversity Council and University Management must bear some responsibility for not taking appropriate steps to avoid this terrible situation,” Ms Lee said. “CQUniversity staff are committed teachers, researchers and professionals, and yet they feel their proposals to strengthen the University were never taken seriously.”

The union said neither academic nor general staff were treated with the real respect and support they deserve. Instead, management hired armies of “independent” consultants to conduct wave after wave of organisational change that achieved very little.

“It is important, too, that state and federal politicians now have the real facts before them,” Ms Lee said. “Now is the time for the Queensland Minister for Education to reflect upon whether the mix of experience and skill on the current CQUniversity Council is appropriate, given the challenges that lie ahead.

“Professor Bowman has publicly stated that he plans to build the University into a great teaching and research institution, and will engage closely with Central Queensland community.” Ms Lee said NTEU members were looking forward to working closely and co-operatively with him in achieving that goal. “This report is timely and will be helpful to Professor Bowman because it provides accurate data and because it has been presented in time for him to turn the University around,” she concluded.

Next article – Chemists face last gasp WorkChoices contracts

Back to index page