Staff were also given the option of taking fewer hours for less pay or taking leave without pay. A third option included taking voluntary retirement or transitioning to part-time employment while moving towards retirement. "I understand that this is an incredibly challenging and uncertain time and want to assure you that I will leave no option unexplored in seeking to protect as many jobs at UNSW as possible," Professor Jacobs said. Loading "In recent weeks, we have deferred all capital expenditure, frozen travel costs and our senior leaders have imposed significant discretionary budget cuts. We are also stopping or pausing recruitment." Professor Jacobs said the university was facing a $600 million budget shortfall. UNSW last week said its international student numbers had fallen by 30 per cent after the University of Sydney told staff it expected a $470 million budget loss as a result of a 17 per cent drop in international student enrolments.

A UNSW spokeswoman said staff have been asked to consider a range of voluntary measures "to lessen the impact of future action, including job losses, because of the revenue shortfalls related to the COVID-19 virus". "These are voluntary options to help UNSW at this extraordinary time, and no staff member is being pressured to agree to any of these options," the spokeswoman said. "We appreciate that these are significant steps for staff to consider during a very difficult time and understand each staff member’s situation is unique," she said. "We seek to work together with our academic and professional communities so that we can achieve as positive an outcome as possible." The threat of job losses comes as the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has warned that the federal government $18 billion relief package for higher education announced on Sunday would do little to help because it was not new money and had already been budgeted.

“This will not plug the gaping hole in university finances left by the drop in international student income,” Dr Barnes said. Dr Barnes said local NTEU representatives would meet with UNSW management on Thursday to seek further information about the proposal. The NTEU was also negotiating a job protection strategy with vice-chancellors across the country. Loading Professor Jacobs said the government relief would "only slightly reduce our $600 million projected shortfall as we had anticipated much of this support". Phil Honeywood, chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia, said the international education sector employed 240,000 people. The closure of boarders and no new student enrolments had put jobs at risk.

"The more a university has come to rely on international student incomes, the more likely it is going to face job security issues going forward," he said. Earlier this week, Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven warned that "some universities obviously got their equations wrong" in their heavy reliance on high-fee international student enrolments. "The problem is if you over-concentrate, you do make yourself vulnerable," Professor Craven said. "What worries me is the university system as we knew it, which was not perfect, will never come back again. There has been a fundamental shift and some very good universities are going to find it very hard." Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said the government had guaranteed $18 billion in funding for universities even if there is a fall in domestic student numbers and would continue to work with the sector to minimise the financial impact of COVID-19.

"Universities are also working with the NTEU on measures to support staff," Mr Tehan said. “We are aware that like the rest of the Australian and global community the university sector is not immune from the financial impact of the virus and that it covers a breadth of people within its communities including professional staff, academics, casual staff, domestic students, and international students. “The government has worked with the commercial banking sector to provide liquidity to the market. The states and Territories have a role to play in ensuring that liquidity is meeting the needs of potential borrowers. We’ve encouraged all universities who think they need additional lending capacity to approach their lenders at this time."