Tag: Campus

  • Streamlining payroll for casual and contract staff in education  – Campus Review

    Streamlining payroll for casual and contract staff in education  – Campus Review

    Australia’s higher education sector is highly dependent on casual and contract staff. As of 2021, 43 per cent of higher education employees were employed as casual or fixed-term contract employees. This puts education among the top 10 industries in terms of casual employment utilisation.

    While this workforce model provides flexibility for universities, it also introduces significant payroll complexities, including managing multiple roles under different awards, ensuring accurate timesheet approvals, and meeting compliance obligations for both domestic and international employees.

    For staff, payroll errors – such as delayed payments, incorrect classifications, or missed superannuation contributions – can have severe financial and emotional consequences.

    To mitigate these risks, universities are looking to adopt modern payroll systems that automate compliance, improve accuracy, and enhance payroll transparency. Without effective payroll management, institutions risk financial penalties, reputational risk, and damage to staff wellbeing.

    ‘Wage theft’ or just outdated technology?

    Campus Review readers will no doubt be familiar with the many stories of underpayment in the education sector.

    Dubbed ‘wage theft’ in a report by the same name in 2023, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) reported underpayments of $159 million since 2009, across 97,500 staff, 55 separate incidents and 32 different institutions.

    The union blamed these underpayments to casual workers on ‘conditions of the awards not being followed’, bit in reality, it isn’t so simple.

    In its response to the NTEU report, the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association (AHEIA) found that “complex industrial agreements and government policy and funding arrangements had contributed to the [wage underpayment] issue, however, institutions have an obligation to ensure appropriate governance settings and frameworks to avoid these circumstances emerging.”

    “This includes implementing updates and changes to workforce system architecture, such as payroll and time recording systems.”

    Universities operate under some of the most complex employment frameworks in Australia. Staff can hold multiple contracts simultaneously, such as teaching undergraduates while working on a research grant, all under separate pay structures.

    Without an integrated HR and payroll system, ensuring compliance across these contracts becomes a high-risk administrative challenge. Instead of focusing on past underpayments, the focus should be on modernising payroll technology to prevent future mistakes.

    To do this, universities and higher-education institutions across Australia are investing in payroll automation, real-time compliance tracking, and award interpretation tools to ensure correct payments, protect their reputations, and improve staff confidence in payroll accuracy.

    The role of payroll automation in reducing errors

    Companies that rely on manual data entry and updates to data always run the risk of payroll errors and compliance issues. Relying on paper or even spreadsheets to track time worked and manually keying this data into systems creates a huge risk right from the start of the process.

    Errors often stem from these outdated and manual payroll processes, not from negligence or cost-cutting. It’s in these systems where complexities such as irregular working hours, different payment structures, and compliance with visa and employment laws create administrative strain.

    By eliminating manual data entry and automating compliance checks, universities can ensure employees receive accurate and timely payments while reducing financial and reputational risks.

    Automation also simplifies complex payroll calculations – such as processing multiple roles under different pay scales – ensuring employees are paid according to their specific contract terms without administrative bottlenecks.

    How real-time payroll reporting improves accuracy and transparency

    Payroll transparency is essential for improving trust between universities and their employees, as is the ability to run payroll in real-time and see the impact of calculations. This becomes possible when organisations automate the process and focus on managing exceptions rather than processing errors.

    A real-time payroll calculation allows payroll teams to identify anomalies early in the cycle, chase missing or invalid timesheets, and pinpoint specific employees whose pay data needs to be adjusted without having to reprocess the entire payroll.

    The latest technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), will further improve automation and exception handling. These tools will enable payroll managers to identify potential issues earlier in the pay cycle, ensuring errors are corrected before payroll is finalised.

    Real-time reporting also allows universities to forecast workforce expenses more effectively, preventing payroll overruns and ensuring compliance with both internal financial controls and external regulatory obligations.

    The benefits of integrated HR and payroll systems

    Managing payroll for casual and non-permanent staff has long been a challenge for universities, particularly when employees hold multiple roles across different departments with varying conditions and payment rules.

    To overcome payroll complexities, universities need integrated HR and payroll systems, automated payments and improved compliance tracking. A truly integrated system, such as TechnologyOne’s Human Resources & Payroll (HRP), provides:

    • A single source of truth for multiple roles within an institution, ensuring that casual staff who also hold permanent positions are accurately classified and compensated.
    • Seamless onboarding and payroll management, ensuring new staff are correctly set up for payroll from day one.
    • Automated compliance monitoring, reducing the administrative burden on payroll teams.
    • Flexible self-service tools, allowing casual and contract staff to manage their employment records independently.
    • Real-time cost tracking, ensuring payroll expenses align with funding allocations and institutional budgets.

    Universities that are now using TechnologyOne’s Human Resources & Payroll have benefited from a more efficient approach to payroll. Charles Darwin University, for example, transitioned from separate legacy HR, recruitment and payroll systems to a fully integrated HR and Finance platform, eliminating inefficiencies and reducing payroll errors.

    Similarly, the University of Dundee in the UK moved from highly bespoke, costly custom systems to a standardised enterprise platform, resulting in cost savings and process efficiency.

    Future-proofing payroll for higher education

    As universities continue to adapt to workforce casualisation and regulatory changes, investing in a scalable and automated payroll system is essential. Future-proofing payroll means ensuring that universities have a system capable of handling evolving award structures, diverse employment types, and increasing compliance demands.

    TechnologyOne’s Human Resources & Payroll (HRP) helps universities automate payroll, ensure compliance, and reduce payroll errors, delivering a seamless, integrated workforce management experience.

    Find out how TechnologyOne HRP can transform your university’s payroll processes.

    Andy Cox is TechnologyOne’s General Manager for HR & Payroll Products, leading the development of innovative solutions that help organisations manage the entire employee lifecycle from recruitment to retirement.

    Do you have an idea for a story?
    Email [email protected]

    Source link

  • Education Minister’s western Sydney seat to be test for Labor – Campus Review

    Education Minister’s western Sydney seat to be test for Labor – Campus Review

    Education Minister Jason Clare’s seat of Blaxland is considered safe, but the impacts of western Sydney’s “melting pot” population on this election remains to be seen.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Coalition’s pitch to get more students into VET after high school  – Campus Review

    Coalition’s pitch to get more students into VET after high school  – Campus Review

    A Coalition government would invest $260m to get more high school students to take up trades instead of pursuing university, it has been announced, after it indicated it would cut the Labor’s fee-free TAFE program..

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • 800 combined jobs to be cut at WSU, UTS – Campus Review

    800 combined jobs to be cut at WSU, UTS – Campus Review

    Western Sydney University (WSU) is expected to cut up to 400 jobs to help cope with an almost 80 million deficit in 2026 amid a “large deterioration” in student numbers.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Coventry given green light to open campus in GIFT City

    Coventry given green light to open campus in GIFT City

    The institution revealed its ambition to open the campus in December, when it launched an Indian hub in New Delhi to support the institute’s admissions, recruitment, and partnerships in the region.

    Approval for the £1 billion expenditure on the campus was announced at the London Stock Exchange on April 9 at the 13th UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD).

    GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) is a business district in the Indian state of Gujarat.

    “We are delighted that approval has been given to commence the set-up process for Coventry University GIFT City and know that many students will benefit from the high-quality education we can offer over the years to come,” said John Latham CBE, vice-chancellor of Coventry University and Group.

    Competition among international universities has risen significantly in the region, with more UK universities keen on expanding into GIFT City. In January, The University of Surrey unveiled plans to open a campus in the city, as did Queen’s University Belfast.

    We… know that many students will benefit from the high-quality education we can offer over the years to come
    John Latham, Coventry University

    Coventry’s new India campus is offering postgraduate programs such as international business management and business and finance. The university plans to add further courses in the near future.

    Alison Barrett, director of India at the British Council said: “It emphasises our shared commitment to the internationalisation of education, as highlighted in the National Education Policy 2020. Thousands of students will benefit from the high-quality education that the university can offer in the years to come.”

    The campus building is set open its doors this month.

    Source link

  • AI in private vs public higher education sector – Episode 164 – Campus Review

    AI in private vs public higher education sector – Episode 164 – Campus Review

    Partner at consultant KordaMentha John Dewar led a panel of public and private university leaders that re-examined the sector’s current artificial intelligence (AI) strategies and opportunities.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Most popular degrees for NSW, ACT incoming students – Campus Review

    Most popular degrees for NSW, ACT incoming students – Campus Review

    On Campus

    Data from 75,000 applicants showed the degrees of choice for incoming students

    Health and Society and Culture courses remain the most popular for university applicants in NSW and the ACT according to the admissions centre.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Greens to push for free university in a hung parliament – Campus Review

    Greens to push for free university in a hung parliament – Campus Review

    Every Australian would be able to go to university or TAFE for free under a new Greens policy that would cost the federal budget $46.5 billion over the next four years.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Some Rules for Campus Resistance (opinion)

    Some Rules for Campus Resistance (opinion)

    Given what’s happened at Columbia University (and what is happening now at other Ivies, and beyond), every university leader in the United States ought to be planning in advance what they will do when similar pressures are brought to bear on them. Academics ought to as well; all the citizens of our republics of learning should care about their institutions and be willing to defend them.

    Over a decade ago, here at the University of Virginia, we had a nasty little fight with our Board of Visitors when they tried to fire President Teresa Sullivan with little more logic or rationale than we’re currently seeing come out of Washington. (The American Association of University Professors produced a pretty good report about it, if you want to read something unsettling.)

    Our opponents in that little pas de deux had a degree of ignorance that amply matched their arrogance, but we were lucky in discovering allies far beyond Charlottesville in our alumni base and other institutions.

    At the time, I recognized that we had learned some smaller, tactical lessons in the whole shindig that might be relatively portable across different universities. I almost published them, but decided that it was better to let my university go forward without adding my two cents.

    Now, however, in our moment, these seem relevant again. So, in the wake of Columbia’s capitulation to Trump’s assault, I dusted them off and polished them up. They didn’t need much polishing, to be honest. Consider this a small pamphlet for thinking about hosting “a little rebellion now and then” on your campus, when such is needful.

    1. Don’t start the fight. Have a prompting event—even if you invite it merely by doing your job. We were lucky to have a “day of infamy” jump-start our events in 2012. It was dropped, gift wrapped, into our lap. We were, from the beginning, in the position of the victim—the one who was wronged. Being the aggrieved party from the start helps. A lot.
    1. Be a big tent, but have one common aim. Because the misdeed was so expansive in its implications, the scope of our “we” was enormously wide. The “we” who was violated included not just the president, but the administration, faculty and staff—and not just them, but the students, and the alumni, and indeed the community of Charlottesville, and possibly all those interested in the future of academia in America and beyond. And anyway, you’re not seeking consensus: You’re seeking alliance. This is hard for us academics, because we are so excellent at invidious distinctions. But remember: World War II was won by an alliance of the British empire, the anticolonialist liberal United States and the definitionally revolutionary U.S.S.R. If those three states could work together, you can say something nice about professors in the business school, or vice versa. The same goes for deans and administrators: They are not the enemy. By coordinating the most expansive community as the community to whom voice could be given, we ensured not just that numbers were on our side, but that the widest set of complaints and grievances were brought to bear on the most precise targets.
    2. Lean into shared governance. No one ever expected the UVA Faculty Senate to be consequential, least of all the Faculty Senate. It was the place where we sent junior faculty “to learn about the university”; given how much import anyone normally gives to learning about the university, that shows you what we thought of it. But, to borrow from Don Rumsfeld, you go to war with the institutions you have, not the institutions you wish you had, and now everyone knows that the Faculty Senate can matter, and matter decisively. I hope we never forget it. I hope you can learn from our example and not your own.
    3. Tenure counts. You know that thing we say about tenure mattering for free expression and for ensuring that you can speak your mind on academic matters without getting fired by administrators who don’t like what you have to say? I used to find it annoying and silly— “of course that’s not going to happen, not today,” I thought; “no one will be so dictatorial.” Well, lookie here—I was wrong. The first and consistently most vocal group in the whole UVA fracas was the faculty. The staff members were behind us (especially the women on the university’s staff, who had felt represented by Sullivan in a powerful way), but obviously they were in the most vulnerable position. And the deans and administrators were by and large ready to accept the coup as a fait accompli. (While the deans of the various schools eventually came around, it took them some time; only after they realized that almost every last one of the faculty were extraordinarily pissed, and shopping their CVs around, did they realize that they were hurting themselves more by not saying anything than they would by saying something.)
    1. “If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower said that, and it’s true here. The prompting event of our crisis was of course the firing of our President Sullivan by our board rector, Helen Dragas, and a few others (let’s be honest about what it was and who did it). But it was clear from the beginning that there were larger issues here—about the disconnect between oversight, management and teachers and researchers, about the creeping “corporatization” of the board (though that does a terrible disservice to wise governance of corporations around the world, which would never be run the way most university boards try to run their institutions), about the failure of faculty to take seriously how the higher levels of the university were operating—matters far larger than simply this act. As the crisis developed, we realized we were reaping the consequences of structural contempt toward the faculty (and the rest of the university, really) by the Board of Visitors and a crisis of apathy about university governance on the part of the faculty. The problem may be larger than you first realize: Get it in focus, first and foremost.
    2. “Do you expect me to talk?” “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.” The idea that disputes of these sorts are amenable most basically to conversation is mistaken. Statements were continually communicated to our Board of Visitors, but we knew almost at once that argument was not our real weapon. Once you decide to dissent, the time for talk is over, at least with opponents such as these; they will not be amenable to conversation—not without a great deal of pressure from other forces and sources. Your aim is not to convince your opponents; your aim is to beat them. To do that, you must persuade potential allies, not actual enemies. That said, it never hurts to be reasonable and produce strong arguments directed at your opponents, so long as you know those arguments are largely valuable because they are overheard by others.
    3. At no point should you demonize or vilify your opponents. It weirdly invests them with power you need not bestow. You’re in a fight with someone who’s like a toddler—do not descend to their level. Speak calmly, as to a toddler having a temper tantrum. You won’t convince them, but you will demonstrate you are not afraid. That will upset them more. If they lose, of course they will say you did demonize and belittle them; they’ll call you “so mean,” “ungracious” and “nasty in tone.” Don’t worry; everyone else knows otherwise. Saying that may be their only consolation prize. Let them have it. You’re walking out with the Benjamins. Or, in our case, the Sullivan.
    1. Time is not your friend, but nonetheless, boil the frog slowly. In a delicious irony, the coup at UVA was reversed “incrementally”—a bad word for Rector Dragas, a good word for President Sullivan. Resistance to the coup began with some immediate disquiet from the faculty and a few students on campus when it was first announced. But the faculty knew from the beginning they wouldn’t be the material cause of any change; they needed more powerful allies. The momentum built slowly, then snowballed at the end. And the momentum built both inside the institution and outside it: inside, mostly by growing outrage at the trickle of information released and the little bit we could discover (or, more properly, the media could discover) over time, and outside, by the gradual but eventually approaching exponential expansion of numbers and kinds of UVA stakeholders who expressed outrage.

    The end of the first week saw the Faculty Senate meeting where 800 faculty and others listened as our provost, John Simon, expressed real and powerful concern, and subtle outrage, over what had happened and how it had happened. By the end of the second week, we had politicians, alumni, other university faculties—and a number of major donors—speaking out in outrage. And then, too, we began to see newspaper editorial boards—and Katie Couric—condemn the firing. Had the Board of Visitors waited a bit longer to reverse its action, no doubt the United Nations, the E.U., the Nature Conservancy, the NBA, al Qaeda and Justin Bieber would have issued statements.

    The lesson here? Don’t try to get everyone on board all at once. Trust the swarm method, but go through your list of stakeholders methodically—moving from the most swayable to the least so. Rank them in their “get-ability,” and then get them, encouraging the ones you already have on your side to increase pressure on the next-most-gettable ones. On day two of a crisis, you probably won’t get The Washington Post and your institution’s major donors to sign on to calling this an outrage; but by day 10, or 14, with a little help, and momentum from other people, you may. And better still, while this is happening, your opponents probably won’t notice the pressure gradually ratcheting up, as they are simply trying to keep responding to different constituencies. By the time they realize that there are a lot of people angry at them, there’s little they can do to quell the anger, except give in.

    1. Have a lousy enemy, and let everyone see that. Maleficence is usually associated with incompetence, and in the case of this episode, that was true. We were extraordinarily fortunate in our foe. The Kremlin-like silence of the Board of Visitors as the shock and anger mounted; the Politburo-like prose when the board decided to speak; the slow uncovering of the incredibly flimsy reasoning behind the decision, revealed in emails over the previous months; the remarkable stubbornness, coupled with utterly no sense of the appearance of absurdity regarding the irrationality of the stubbornness—it’s as if we couldn’t have had a better opponent for this fight.

    But it is important that what gets publicized is your opponents’ badness, not your contempt for them. Academics are really, really skilled at expressing contempt. Few of us realize it doesn’t make us look good, either in faculty meetings or on social media. You never win an argument by judging your opponents. Instead, let your opponents be seen for who they are.

    This is mostly out of your control, but it might be possible to imagine different ways of framing your opponent, so that different profiles of them emerge. In our case it was clear early on that it would be very important not to make this about the entire Board of Visitors but to focus on a small clique inside it so that pressure could be put upon the whole in such a way that some fractures would result; we hoped that such fractures, once they appeared, would quickly cause the whole to shatter. And they did: In the end Sullivan’s reinstatement was a unanimous board decision, the unanimity induced by the fact that the Dragas faction knew they had lost and quickly crumbled.

    Anyway, these are some things I think we learned. Best of luck if you get in a position to need them. You’ll need all the luck you can get. We certainly did. But, you know, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. That was on a motivational poster I saw once. Occasionally such things are useful. If you don’t know what I mean, I fear you will soon.

    Charles Mathewes is a professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia.

    Source link

  • Banks to waive HECS-HELP loans in mortgage applications – Campus Review

    Banks to waive HECS-HELP loans in mortgage applications – Campus Review

    People with student debt can now borrow more for a house as new government guidance filters through to the banks.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link