Universities justified job cuts with numbers no-one could check

Key points

• A NSW parliamentary inquiry has found the University of Wollongong and five other universities appeared to overstate their financial problems and went too far in restructures and staff cuts. Former UOW professor Adam Lucas accepted a voluntary redundancy after challenging the figures used to justify his role's removal.
• He said the financial model was never shown to staff for testing. Inquiry chair Sarah Kaine described some financial cases as faux crisis narratives.
• The committee recommended banning universities from publicly using adjusted figures that differ from audited accounts.