Uni defies jobs trend with plan to hire 330 By: John Stapleton, Australian, The, 19 January, 2009

John Stapleton 

THE University of Sydney is bucking the economic trend with an announcement that it is to increase its total staff numbers by 10 per cent. 

In a rare optimistic note in a crumbling employment market, the university said yesterday it was to take on an extra 330 workers. The staff are to be employed at a $385 million Centre for Obesity, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease, with the federal Government contributing $95 million. The centre is to be completed by 2013. 

After years of financial belt-tightening in the sector, academics have greeted the initiative as a welcome return to public sector investment in employment. 

It has been described as exactly the type of job investment required to fend off a full-scale depression. ``This is the largest ever single recruitment drive 

the university has undertaken for a major project,'' deputy Vice-Chancellor Don Nutbeam said. 

The centre represents the first phase of plans to create a major international biomedical research precinct ultimately accommodating 5000 researchers and postgraduate students. 

The director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity at the University of Newcastle, Bill Mitchell, said the project was a welcome change. ``This shows the power of the public sector to create sustainable employment opportunities for skilled workers, a capacity we lost,'' he said.