Federal MP for Riverina Michael McCormack has called on the Albanese government to urgently support regional universities after Charles Sturt University (CSU) announced staff cuts to address a $35 million budget shortfall.
According to ABC News, the university, with campuses in six regional NSW towns, including Wagga Wagga and Bathurst, cited a sharp decline in international student enrolments — now at just 10% of 2019 levels — as the main cause of the financial strain.
CSU Vice-Chancellor Renée Leon said the drop was a direct result of federal government policies limiting international student numbers.
“In Charles Sturt’s case, international students cross-subsidise students from regional, rural and remote locations,” she said.
“The simple truth… is that international student revenue pays for domestic students and research and, by extension, jobs at universities.”
McCormack warned of broader consequences: “The ripple effect will be like a tsunami across those regional economies,” he said.
“We can’t just have the metropolitan sandstone universities educating the best and brightest of our young people.”
He said he had written to Education Minister Jason Clare demanding urgent policy and funding support: “Now is the time for action.”
Union representative Dr Anna Corbo Crehan criticised CSU for a lack of transparency, saying staff were “stuck in a crushing limbo.”
The university joins others across the sector — including the University of Wollongong — in cutting jobs due to the international student downturn.
Source: ABC.
