Last week it was revealed Shepparton's La Trobe University campus staff were asked to express their interest in voluntary redundancies as the university would "inevitably" have to cut jobs as it expected to bleed more than $250 million during the next two years as a result of a reduction in international students.
Ms Sheed said it was concerning when big companies had to make financial cuts when they had entities in regional areas, such as Shepparton.
“The Independent Federal Member for Indi Helen Haines has been demanding the Federal Government extend Jobkeeper to universities and I strongly lend my support to her position,” Ms Sheed said.
However, Mr Drum said university staff who lost their jobs would have to rely on the government JobSeeker Payments program.
“We (Federal Government) have put JobKeeper and JobSeeker together to work hand in hand,” Mr Drum said.
“There are a number of people who work for overseas companies, local government and state government who are ineligible for JobKeeper, but are eligible for Job Seeker like university staff will be.
“Universities, like everyone else, will have to look for savings and reassess their priorities within a more constrained financial environment.
“Australia’s university leaders are up to the challenge of minimising the impact of COVID-19 on their operations.”
Mr Drum said more than half of total university revenue was derived from domestic student enrolments, and roughly a quarter was derived from international students.
“Most of that domestic student revenue is taxpayer-funded,” Mr Drum said.
“Through our Higher Education Relief Package, our government has guaranteed universities will receive $18 billion in funding this year, even if they experience a downturn in domestic student attendance,” Mr Drum said.
However, Ms Sheed said the dire state of universities placed many years of careful planning and first-class tertiary education pathways in Victoria’s regions at risk.
“They have reportedly lost hundreds of millions of dollars from their annual budgets and are facing critical funding decisions,” Ms Sheed said.
“We cannot allow this situation to damage the extremely important task of training and educating high-skilled workers in regions such as my electorate.
“We’ve long known we have difficulty retaining professionals in the regions and we also know one of the best ways to attract and keep professionals, such as health workers, paramedics, social workers doctors, nurses and teachers, is to train them here.
“They come from our community or become part of the community and they stay.”
Ms Sheed also called on the Victorian Government to help back universities and said she would be investigating ways of how the state government could get behind regional university campuses.
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