Under the imposed budgetary and governance structures of the university, the different faculties are made responsible for their own fates. What this means is that faculties such as Arts are expected to “break even” despite their inability to attract as many full fee-paying students as other faculties.
The solution of the university is not to fully fund the Arts Faculty but to force a situation where self-administered cuts are the only perceived solution. This is despite the historical and social importance of tertiary education in humanities. There is a similar trend of decline in Arts faculties nationwide: one can only suggest that this may have something to do with the unprofitable nature of critical thinking and analysis.
Humanities are being treated more and more as a pathway into “professional” qualification. The Arts Faculty has an invaluable role to play in the dissemination of cultural and intellectual capital, as well as fostering a culture of debate and inquiry. This role has been forgotten in all the hoo-ha about budgets.
Following on from last year’s 24 cut staff, the Arts Faculty has proposed a round of “voluntary redundancies”. Further staff redundancies will have serious repercussions on the quality of education students receive: the remaining staff will be expected to take up the excess workload. Staff have consistently aired their concerns that their workloads have increased dramatically. Meanwhile, the Dean of Arts, Mark Considine, has refused to make any kind of guarantee on future student-staff ratios.
Instead of lobbying the government for more money for universities and for the humanities in general, the Vice-Chancellor has consistently lobbied for further fee deregulation, which pushes the costs of higher education further onto students. We feel this is blatantly unfair!
Come to the Speak-out.
(With thanks to Max Kaiser from the Welfare department)
