By Kylie Moon
BANKSTOWN — Students and staff at the University of Western Sydney's Bankstown campus are united in a campaign to defeat cuts to UWS Macarthur's adult education course. The cuts will affect 135 students and are part of a broader attack on the education and languages faculty. Eleven staff will lose their jobs.
The secondary education course has also been threatened with the chop.
The course is for educators from TAFE, private industry and the community. For example, one of the students is employed by the taxi industry to provide English lessons to new drivers. Almost all his work is conducted in Sydney's western suburbs.
The cuts could be implemented as early as next semester. Andrew Viller, UWS Macarthur Bankstown Students Association education officer, told Resistance that the administration's moves were "outrageous".
"These cutbacks were proposed with nearly no consultation with staff, and definitely none with students. The only information that students have received was leaked. If a student presented a report with as little research as that by the dean, Margaret Vickers, the student would receive an automatic fail", Viller said.
"The need for further education in the western suburbs is great. There is a huge number of people from non-English-speaking backgrounds, and enormous rates of unemployment. The abolition of the adult education course will have a devastating impact.
"The options will be quite limited for women in the course (82 of the 135 students), all of whom are mature age. Travelling into the city for the adult education course offered by the University of Technology would not be feasible, because most live in the western suburbs. Safety on public transport at night and family responsibilities will restrict them severely", Viller told Resistance.
The campaign launched by the Students Association has attracted meetings of 40 angry students. The administration and the faculty dean's justification for the cutbacks is government funding cuts. The Students Association suspects that the cuts are an attempt to redirect resources to more "profitable" fields of study such as psychology at the Bankstown campus and law, at the Campbelltown campus.
Over the past two years, students have witnessed a decline in the number of students from Sydney's south-western suburbs. This contradicts the UWS mission statement, which claims to guarantee access to tertiary education for the population of the western and south-western suburbs.
The university is gearing itself towards "boutique majors" not offered in the city universities, such as criminology and policing. The development of these courses has come at the cost of less popular courses such as the now defunct anthropology, and welfare and social work degrees.
"UWS students have proven in the past that they are willing to mobilise to defend their education. In late 1997-early 1998, students defeated the university's decision to abolish welfare and cut back the youth work degree", Viller said.
"This was met with a strong campaign, which culminated in a rally where the dean of the faculty was forced to answer to students' demands. There are now strong murmurings that these courses are back on the chopping block."
To get involved in the campaign, phone Andrew or John on 9772 6488 or fax the UWS Macarthur Bankstown Students Association on 9774 6488.