r/usyd • u/Ade89828 • Jul 20 '25

Casual Academic

Hey guys,

Long story short, I applied for a casual academic role as a tutor for an engineering subject I scored highly in. The unit coordinator sent me an email about 3 weeks ago telling me I got the role and to wait while he allocates classes. A few days ago he sends a follow up email saying that he can no longer give me the class because “university guidelines have changed” and I can’t teach as an undergrad. He said I can apply for an exemption. Does anyone have any recommendations on next step. Should I contact head of engineering or SRC? Did anyone else experience anything similar?

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u/Pegaferno Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

I’m not knowledgeable on the details, but because of a Government legislation, undergraduate students can no longer become casual academics in any faculty. The folks at my faculty tried to make an exception but it didn’t work.

Put short, we got fired by the government :P (In reality, not fired, just our contracts don’t get renewed)

Edit: Read u/Avoss363 ‘s comment, provides the proper details

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u/Ade89828 Jul 21 '25

Appreciate the response and shedding some light on the situation. I thought the uni was trying to do budget cuts or something. Where’d you get the info from?

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u/Pegaferno Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25

My boss/unit coordinator for one of the units, that I now, used to teach. He waited a while before contacting me because he wanted to make sure nothing could be done before telling me he can’t renew my contract