‘Your positions will no longer be required’: Plans to shut down uni degrees revealed

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The debt-plagued University of Technology Sydney will push ahead with plans to shut down its school of education despite pleas from the state government to overturn the proposal.

Dozens of staff members were called to a meeting on Tuesday morning and told the university’s School of International Studies and Education would close and most of their jobs would disappear under the restructure proposal, which will be subject to a consultation period of at least four weeks.

Tomorrow will be a dark day for UTS staff when the restructure plan is revealed in a meeting at 10.30am.

“Unfortunately, with the proposed changes from the disestablishment of school, should these changes go ahead, it’s been identified that your positions will no longer be required in the future,” a member of management told staff.

Some courses, including international relations and criminology, will be retained but moved to other faculties. One academic present at the meeting, who did not wish to be named, said it appeared as if the closure of the teacher education program was all but decided.

“The overwhelming feeling from staff was that it was presented in a way which was conclusive, despite words to the effect that there might be some hope,” the academic said.

Academics within the school of public health were also told on Tuesday their school would close under the redundancy proposal set to be formally unveiled to the wider university community at 10.30am on Wednesday.

It comes after months of instability at the institution, which this year announced plans to axe 150 academics and 250 professional staff after recording a deficit of $78 million last year.

Management is trying to find about $100 million a year in ongoing savings while it seeks to refinance its debts in a bid to maintain a good credit rating. Unlike other universities, UTS has enrolled a record number of lucrative foreign students this year.

Restructure plans have been mired by controversy, including revelations the university’s vice chancellor spent more than $20,000 on a business-class ticket to travel to the United States with other executives for an alumni event.

Management was also labelled tone-deaf after staff facing job cuts were directed to advice which said: “do that task you’ve been dreading, like washing delicates, organising receipts for your taxes or cleaning a bathroom”.

The university was forced to delay releasing details of the proposed job cuts following action by the tertiary education union against the institution in the Fair Work Commission.

Upper House Labor MP Dr Sarah Kaine said the move was a direct threat to the mission of higher education in NSW.

There were further delays when the institution was subsequently ordered to press pause on unveiling redundancy plans by the state’s workplace health and safety regulator because unexpected meeting invitations and “finalistic” language posed a serious risk of psychological harm to staff.

A university spokesman refused to elaborate on the plans or the scale of the job losses on Tuesday, saying tomorrow’s redundancy proposal was a starting point for a “genuine and robust” consultation.

“Meetings with staff members who are potentially impacted are being held ahead of the wider release to all staff in order to support their psychosocial safety and wellbeing,” he said.

Dr Sarah Kaine, who chairs the NSW Legislative Council Inquiry into the university sector, described the move as “a direct threat to the public mission of higher education in NSW”.

“To dismantle them in the middle of a teacher shortage crisis and ongoing public health challenges, particularly in Indigenous communities, is indefensible,” she said.

NSW Department of Education secretary Murat Dizdar said 8500 UTS graduates had taught in public schools since 1991 and there were 3500 UTS graduates currently teaching.

“Their contribution has been significant, and their absence from future cohorts will be felt,” he said.

“I am extremely disappointed by the University of Technology Sydney’s proposed decision to close its teacher education programs.”

UTS vice chancellor Andrew Parfitt last week told staff that no final decisions had been made when it came to redundancies.

“The release of the academic change proposal is a starting point for genuine and robust consultation,” he said.

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