UNSW Sydney Pay Rates 2026: Professional & Academic Staff Pay

UNSW Sydney employs a large academic workforce — sessional tutors, lecturers, researchers and professors — alongside professional staff across its Kensington, Paddington and Canberra (ADFA) campuses. As at most universities, casual academics and fixed-term research staff are a large share of the headcount.

UNSW staff are covered by separate academic and professional staff enterprise agreements (below), sitting above the Higher Education Industry—Academic Staff—Award 2020 and the Higher Education Industry—General Staff—Award 2020. The award ladders — academic Levels A to E, HEW levels 1 to 10, and casual academic piece rates — are tabled below.

The federal awards relevant to UNSW Sydney roles:

• Higher Education Industry—General Staff—Award 2020 (MA000007)
• Higher Education Industry—Academic Staff—Award 2020 (MA000006)

Workforce snapshot. In its 2024-25 report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, University Of New South Wales declared 18,091 employees across 3 reporting entities — 49.4% casual and 52.9% women, with 960 in management roles. Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).

Professional (general) staff sit on the Higher Education Industry—General Staff—Award 2020 (MA000007). The first pay point of each HEW level is:

Casual professional staff add the 25% loading. University enterprise agreements set their own HEW scales above these figures.

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

Academic staff sit on the Higher Education Industry—Academic Staff—Award 2020 (MA000006). Step 1 of each level:

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

Casual academics are paid piece rates for each activity under the award. The most common:

The associated-work hours built into each rate are the crux of the sector's underpayment cases — if you are paid for the delivery hour only, or marking is capped below the time it takes, the award is not being met.

Enterprise agreements set rates above the award, with their own classification structures and allowances. Current UNSW Sydney agreements in our corpus (7 in total):

• Arc @ UNSW Limited Enterprise Agreement 2024 — approved April 2024, nominal expiry 31 March 2028.
• Royal Foods Brunswick Enterprise Agreement 2024 — approved March 2025, nominal expiry 30 June 2027.
• AutoNexus Enterprise Agreement - Brunswick Fleet Conversions 2024 — approved August 2024, nominal expiry 31 December 2026.
• AutoNexus Enterprise Agreement - Brunswick Fleet Conversions 2024 — approved August 2024, nominal expiry 31 December 2026.
• The University of New South Wales (Professional Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved November 2023, nominal expiry 31 July 2026.
• The University of New South Wales (Academic Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved November 2023, nominal expiry 31 July 2026.
• UNSW College Education (Teaching Employees) Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved March 2024, nominal expiry 31 December 2025.

We don't reproduce agreement dollar figures here — the agreement covering your site, state and stream is the document to read. Find your agreement, then your classification, then your pay point, and compare it with your payslip. The award tables on this page are the floor every one of these agreements must beat.

General award-compliance issues that come up across the university sector. This is a checklist for your own payslip, not a finding about UNSW Sydney:

• Casual academic piece rates that don't cover the work — paid for the delivery hour only, or marking capped below the time it takes.
• Wrong HEW level for the duties actually performed.
• Rolling fixed-term contracts where the work is ongoing.
• Increments and step progression missed after contract changes.

Match your payslip to your classification in the agreement (or the award tables above), and price any gap with our back-pay calculator. Raise it in writing with payroll or your manager first — most underpayments are fixed at that step. Unresolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost, up to six years back, and your union can run the claim for you. Not sure which instrument covers you? Ask our AI advisor with your role and location.