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<\/p>\nAssociate professor Trisha Pender has terminal cancer but it has not stopped the University of Newcastle intensifying her workload to the point it has brought her physical and emotional trauma.<\/p>\n
The university has blamed a much-criticised federal funding regime for the workload pressure on its staff, but told 7.30 it would also review its method for allocating work.<\/p>\n
Dr Pender is a decorated academic who has worked at the university for 19 years.<\/p>\n
When she returned from cancer treatment, the university had changed the way it allocated teaching workloads for its staff with many, including Dr Pender, having heavier loads.<\/p>\n
Dr Pender claims workload pressure rather than cancer forced her back on to leave.<\/p>\n
She fears speaking out may cost her job, but she is doing so to protect colleagues who could have more to lose.<\/p>\n
“I was very, very scared last semester because I was so stressed about getting the work done that I couldn’t really eat,” Dr Pender told 7.30.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t sleep very well, had lots of headaches [and] shakiness.<\/p>\n
“I started to suffer a lot from the pressure.<\/p>\n
“I started just crying all the time and wearing sunglasses to work so that I didn’t scare the students because I was so upset.”<\/p>\n
Trisha Pender says she went on medical leave due to her intense workload.\u00a0 (ABC News: Chris Taylor)<\/p>\n
The university said it was difficult to comment on individual workloads, but “one of the most important things is everyone is able to raise concerns”.<\/p>\n
“I’ve heard about the health news from associate professor Pender, and I really do empathise with her situation. Her personal situation is very difficult for her and her family,” Vice-Chancellor Alex Zelinsky said.<\/p>\n
Dr Pender gave evidence at a recent state government inquiry into university governance, with the inquiry chair saying the concerns about overwork and governance are rife across the sector.<\/p>\n
‘Terminal disease’ allows leeway<\/p>\n
Dr Pender said working at the university had once been her “dream job” but she felt she had to speak out to protect her colleagues.<\/p>\n
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The University of Newcastle blames a federal funding regime for workload pressures on its staff.\u00a0 (ABC Newcastle: Anthony Scully)<\/p>\n
“I’ve got a terminal disease, so I can stick my neck out to protest what’s happening,” she told 7.30.<\/p>\n
“But anybody else at the university who has kids to take care of, who has a rent or mortgage to take care of, they’re basically held over a barrel.”<\/p>\n
NSW upper house Labor MP and former NTEU official Sarah Kaine is chair of the NSW state government inquiry looking into the 10 public universities in the state.<\/p>\n
She has warned university leaders not to take reprisals against staff speaking out on university governance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s really surprising, and I’ve now chaired quite a few inquiries. I’ve never had to do that,” Dr Kaine said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“So it’s very surprising that I’ve had so many people contact me and talk to me about how scared they are to tell me what’s going on because they fear some kind of retaliation.”<\/p>\n
The university strongly rebutted claims of reprisals against staff and said it “welcomed” them speaking out as university subject-matter experts.<\/p>\n
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Sarah Kaine is the chair of an inquiry into the university sector in NSW.\u00a0 (ABC News: Billy Cooper)<\/p>\n
“In all the time I’ve been at the university,\u202fI’ve\u202fnow reached my seventh anniversary, going into my eighth year, I don’t recall me sanctioning anyone, or any of my colleagues sanctioning anyone for speaking up,” Professor Zelinsky said.<\/p>\n
Professor Zelinsky said the university’s review of its workload model would ensure it was being applied consistently while still balancing its books.<\/p>\n
“We’ll seek to actually do what we can to relieve that. But what we can’t do is run down the university’s balance sheet to address the pressures of the teaching,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The university sector estimates it is short-changed $1.3 billion each year by funding changes introduced through the Job-ready Graduates scheme in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Intended to encourage students toward degrees where Australia needed workers, it changed the amount that universities received for teaching students.<\/p>\n
“We must be financially sustainable, and the best way we can do that is to review the Job-ready Graduates scheme and come up with a reform that restores proper funding, not just to the University of Newcastle, but to the whole sector,” Professor Zelinsky said.<\/p>\n
‘State of crisis’<\/p>\n
Another long-serving academic, associate professor Liam Phelan, who first started working at the university in 2004, said the sector was in “an absolute state of crisis”.<\/p>\n
Following broader complaints about the corporatisation of universities, job cuts and underpayments, a national survey of psychosocial risks was published earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The research program on staff wellbeing, led by Adelaide University (partly funded by the NTEU), ranked the University of Newcastle as the worst public university in a national survey of 36 universities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Phelan said 92 per cent of staff surveyed deemed themselves to be at either very high risk or high risk of psychosocial harm.<\/p>\n
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Associate professor Liam Phelan has worked at the university since 2004.\u00a0 (ABC News: Chris Taylor)<\/p>\n
“On the one hand, [the findings are] depressing. On the other hand, I think it’s incredibly helpful to have the data out there.\u202fThere’s no point running from the data,” Dr Phelan told 7.30.<\/p>\n
“To be clear, the whole sector is in a state of crisis, but Newcastle has really outdone itself and come last.”<\/p>\n
The university raised concerns that the survey was taken during a “period of change” and said its sample size of 350 staff was too small to give an accurate picture.<\/p>\n
“The fact that people feel that way, we take it very seriously. As soon as the result appeared, we reached out to the person who was leading that research,” Professor Zelinsky said.<\/p>\n
“I want a safe workplace for people. And one of the things we agreed on is that obviously, there needs to be more data. 350-odd staff is not a big enough sample. We employ nearly 5,000 people.”<\/p>\n
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Alex Zelinsky says there needs to be more data around the risks of psychosocial harm.\u00a0 (ABC News: Billy Cooper)<\/p>\n
Professors from four schools and colleges had also written letters expressing concern to the University of Newcastle’s governing body.<\/p>\n
“There is overwhelming disquiet about the level of workplace change … that much of it has been driven by the advice of outside consultants who do not share the values of public education … is telling,” one letter read.<\/p>\n
“The invisible work that supports contact time with students is seriously underestimated, and students are suffering for it.”<\/p>\n
Dr Phelan said the letters were unprecedented.<\/p>\n
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Liam Phelan says the university sector is in a “state of crisis”.\u00a0 (ABC News: Chris Taylor)<\/p>\n
“I’d say that’s extraordinary, actually. In my more than 20 years here, I’ve not seen that happen before. So perhaps we can call it a once-in-a-generational thing,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The university attributed the disquiet to the funding environment, meaning fewer students and pressure to continue running smaller classes.<\/p>\n
Issue wider than University of Newcastle<\/p>\n
Dr Kaine recently heard evidence as part of a broader inquiry into university governance in NSW.<\/p>\n
“I wish I could say it was isolated to the University of Newcastle. What our inquiry is revealing is that it’s sector-wide,” she said.<\/p>\n
“These are publicly funded institutions. They are there for a public purpose and to serve the public good, and we should demand that.”<\/p>\n
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The University of Newcastle was ranked worst Australian university for psychosocial risks. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)<\/p>\n
A similar inquiry is underway in Victoria, and last year a Commonwealth inquiry found<\/a> governance failures had let down staff, students and the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Universities should be the place that we are excited to either attend as students or for our children, for my kids, to attend because they’re going to have their minds opened,” Dr Kaine said.<\/p>\n She said another focus of the inquiry was the boards overseeing universities.<\/p>\n The inquiry held a public hearing in Newcastle in April.\u00a0 (ABC News: Billy Cooper)<\/p>\n “Very early in the inquiry, we were questioning some university management about … with these councils, how are the members appointed?” Dr Kaine said.<\/p>\n “And essentially, a lot of them are appointed by the management themselves. So, it becomes this self-reinforcing clique, if you like, who don’t feel like they’re there to challenge management.”<\/p>\n Watch 7.30<\/a>, Mondays to Thursdays, 7:30pm on ABC iview<\/a> and ABC TV<\/p>\n Contact 7.30<\/p>\n![\"Tables](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/68616fa6447ab7ac91be4e08dcf5ba16.jpeg\")
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