Julie Sloggett, Sydney
In the next few weeks, University of Western Sydney students will begin the stressful task of attempting to register for semester two tutorials. Many of them will find that the subjects in which they were previously enrolled have now disappeared.
Others will find that they are being directed to take a subject that has nothing to do with their degree or their field of interest; or if they are very unlucky, it may even be on another campus. They may also find themselves directed towards subjects that already have huge enrolments.
In late June, a memo from the university administration was circulated to all full-time staff, addressing three major points:
Firstly, any class that has an enrolment of less than 16 students is to be cancelled.
Secondly, there is a total ban on the hiring of casual tutors and lecturers, and on the creation of short-term contracts to cover staffing shortages.
Thirdly, every school and department across all campuses is expected to cut 6% from its current budget, regardless of whether it is currently carrying a surplus or a deficit.
An article in the June 27 Daily Telegraph announced that the administration intends to cut 19 undergraduate degrees from those on offer as of 2005. By the end of this year, another 250 subjects will no longer be available at the university. This will bring the total number of subjects lost close to 2100 since the beginning of a much-loathed restructure in early 2000 (known to many as the "death of a thousand paper cuts").
Students are likely to find themselves not only forced into overcrowded lecture theatres, but potentially taught via video link-up so that one person can teach 900 students across three campuses simultaneously. Normal two-hour tutorials, where students can ask questions and debate issues, may be replaced by two-hour lectures where students can only sit and passively absorb the course material. Tutorials may be cut to 30 minutes.
[Julie Sloggett is a member of the Socialist Alliance and has been working as a casual teacher at UWS since 1995.]
From Green Left Weekly, July 14, 2004.
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