A Melbourne university has begun backpaying hundreds of casual staff after they were shortchanged almost $3 million in wages over several years.

Deakin University today confirmed it would begin repaying around 440 current and former staff who were underpaid a total of $2.9 million between 2017 and 2024.

In May last year, the university admitted to the "inadvertent underpayment" of sessional staff, which it voluntarily disclosed to the Fair Work Commission after a campaign from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).

Vice Chancellor Iain Martin said marking formulas used to calculate sessional staff paychecks for marking and related duties were misapplied.

In an email sent to staff today, Martin said remediation payments would begin from today.

"I am disappointed and sorry

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