More than 100 University of Adelaide jobs are under threat with postponed federal law changes enabling $100,000 degrees creating a “double-edged sword” situation, the union handling workplace negotiations says.

National Tertiary Education Union Adelaide branch organiser John Kirkham told InDaily the university’s current pressure to cut costs would be amplified by the Federal Government decision to postpone legislation that would have allowed institutions to set their own fees, some touted to be in excess of $100,000.

On Thursday, hours before the government’s announcement, the university’s vice-chancellor Professor Warren Bebbington refuted media inquiries that up to 120 jobs could be lost through its workplace reform process, saying the figure was closer to 50 positions.

Kirkham welcomed the delay in deregulation of fees, however he said the move created a perilous situation for staff whose jobs were under threat through the university’s reform process.

“We’re thrilled about the $100,000 degrees [going] but there needs to be cost savings made [by the university],” Kirkham said.

“Until that statement [by the university] we had no idea how many jobs would go.

“That was before [Thursday’s] announcement, it must be a bigger number than that now.

“They couldn’t say 50 is the number and we say that’s a massive underestimate.

“It’s quite clear that the university is going to have a significant shortfall in their funding.”

Among the revisions by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull since replacing Tony Abbott, the government announced the legislation taken to Parliament by the former Education Minister Christopher Pyne would not be reintroduced for a vote before the next election.

The legislation would have allowed universities to set their own fees, sparking concerns that some courses could cost in excess of $100,000 in the future.

Bebbington said postponing the reform legislation brought all Adelaide students certainty about their fees for next year, and ample time for all parties to consult about a sustainable outcome for university funding.

“Minister Birmingham is a University of Adelaide graduate and I know he is ready to listen, and keen to see a viable university sector.

“We don’t want  local students to be deterred from higher education.

“South Australia needs its young people to feel confident in the learning and employment opportunities in their own state.”

Union members met on Thursday to vote on negotiations under the Professional Services Reform proposal, which the union claims will see at least 120 clerical jobs cut from the university.

The reform has raised concerns shared-service roles in technical, student engagement and clerical will be cut.

Bebbington said the service review would not result in “large-scale job losses”.

“The university’s review of professional services is first and foremost about improving the administrative service to its academic community. We are looking at how and where the different administrative functions should be best located to ensure we work as efficiently and effectively as possible.

“It is completely untrue this would involve large-scale job losses. While there may be job losses in some areas over the next couple of years as Commonwealth funds shrink,  it is really way too early to speculate on the details.

“The deferral of the reform legislation in itself won’t have any impact on Adelaide’s review of professional services, as we established targets for this review in 2013, prior to the Federal Government’s proposed higher education reform package which was announced in the 2014 Budget.

“However,  the major underlying problem facing the higher education sector has not disappeared with the deferral news.  We still must find a sensible and equitable way to address the chronic underfunding of Australian universities.”

Members have called for job security during the reform process and ensuring they would not be subjected to unfair workloads as a result of the change.

Other requests included:

• A fair and transparent selection process to decide who will go and who will stay.
• Making sure that opportunities for redeployment are actively explored.
• Ensuring members are correctly classified in the new structure.
• Proper access to training/retraining for affected staff

Kirkham said the reform focused on the university’s engineering and health services faculties.

“Which is surprising because of our [the state’s] focus on building these areas.”

Kirkham said the university should not be targeting “vital” university services.

“It should be a top-down approach. It’s completely the wrong approach.”

He said the union, which has been in negotiations with the university for the past 10 weeks, had called for “genuine consultation”.