More than 1,000 job cuts have been announced this month at public universities across Australia. This is a direct result of the Labor government’s caps on international student enrolments, on top of its systemic under-funding of the universities.

Labor has decreed cuts to international student enrolments by more than 50,000 for next year, most heavily affecting 15 of the publicly-funded universities. This is a reactionary nationalist move, backed by the Liberal-National Coalition, to scapegoat international students for the worsening housing and cost-of-living crisis affecting working-class households.

The cuts are particularly hitting universities with large numbers of Chinese students, such as the University of Sydney and University of Melbourne. That is in line with efforts throughout the media and political establishment to whip up anti-Chinese sentiment amid escalating US-led preparations for war against China.

The cuts to international students are aimed at forcing universities to integrate themselves more fully with the demands of big business and the military, as set out in the Albanese government’s Universities Accord.

The cuts are depriving universities of one of their main sources of income, full fee-paying international students, who have become cash cows for the universities amid funding cuts by successive Labor and Liberal-National governments.

Among the job cuts unveiled or foreshadowed so far:

• The University of Wollongong announced a $35 million drop in revenue and cuts “in every part of the university.” National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) branch president Fiona Probyn-Rapsey predicted 200-300 job cuts, and said workers would only find out if they were among them on December 20, the last day of work before the summer shut down.

• The Australian National University (ANU) unveiled a projected budget deficit of $200 million this year, called for a $100 million cut from salaries. It has announced 108 redundancies so far, including 50 in the College of Health Medicine, with another 600 job cuts threatened.

• The University of Canberra (UC) said it would cut $50 million in wages by the end of next year, or at least 200 jobs. Outgoing Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker said the cuts would affect “all levels of the institution.”

• James Cook University in Townsville said it would reduce its headcount by about 50 workers.

• The University of Southern Queensland will cut an estimated 60 jobs to fill a $32 million budget hole.

• The University of Newcastle released a “Business Improvement Program” that states the “need to review our approach to workforce planning.”

• University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott said the university expected to lose $1 billion in revenue over five years and has implemented a hiring freeze affecting thousands of workers on fixed term or casual contracts who will not have their contracts renewed.

The Universities of Melbourne, Federation, Tasmania and La Trobe have implemented similar measures.

This is on top of the cuts already announced at Western Sydney University’s College of some 17 percent of the workforce, and the equivalent of 97 full-time positions from the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University. At both universities, workers have formed rank-and-file committees, independent of the campus trade unions, to fight these cuts and develop a broader struggle of education workers.