Students oppose UWS merger
By Kylie Moon
SYDNEY — Student activists from the University of Western Sydney (UWS) have united under the banner of "Westy Net" to organise against a major restructuring of the university that is likely to reduce access to, and quality of, higher education, in Sydney's western suburbs.
Currently, UWS is composed of three member institutions, UWS Macarthur, UWS Nepean and UWS Hawkesbury. The university has eight campuses, spread throughout Sydney's predominantly working-class western and south-western suburbs. Some of the campuses are more than 100 kilometres from each other. UWS is the fifth largest university in Australia, with more than 30,000 students. Each member institution operates fairly autonomously.
The UWS board of trustees decided in October to "amalgamate" all campuses into one university, and centralise its administration. The plan has been hailed as a major cost-saving measure.
In November, the NSW audit office released a report claiming close to 12% of UWS's total expenditure was spent on administration, the highest of all universities in NSW. The audit office claimed that $5.98 million could be saved if UWS was restructured.
The models put forward for the restructure include the consolidation of schools onto single campuses. For example, the UWS Nepean Parramatta campus could become the school of law; UWS Macarthur Bankstown the School of Arts. UWS administration has reneged on its promise that each student would have a home campus under the restructure, i.e. that at least 50% of a student's subjects would be taught at one campus.
Westy Net activists are concerned that the UWS merger will radically compromise the quality and access of university education for people living in western suburbs. Federico Fuentes, Westy Net activist and a member of the UWS Bankstown Resistance Club, told Green Left Weekly that "the proposal will force students and staff to travel long distances, or study via the internet. It will also lead to major cuts in staff numbers and courses."
UWS was set up in 1989 to meet the educational needs of western Sydney's huge population, recognising the barriers created by the cost and time it takes to travel into central Sydney.
The western Sydney area contains up to 10% of Australia's population, the majority being from economically disadvantaged and/or non-English speaking backgrounds. Two-thirds of UWS graduates are the first in their families to study at university, and half the graduates come from non English speaking backgrounds.
Many of the courses offered at the UWS serve the needs of the Sydney's working-class communities. For example, at Bankstown campus subjects offered include social work, adult education and translating. Most of the graduates from these courses are employed in the western and south-western Sydney area.
Westy Net activists dispute the cost-cutting "benefits" of the merger. Fuentes commented that "the cost of running a university like UWS is going to be much higher than if it was centralised in the one geographical area. 'Restructuring', in truth rationalising, the university into campus-based schools isn't going to make those extra costs disappear — it will simply shift the burden of the costs onto the students and staff forcing them to pay more to travel even longer distances to study and work."
The UWS administration plans to push the restructuring through by 2001. It has revealed very few of the details and what impact it will have on students and staff. Different models have been discussed, however nothing has been announced.
"The administration is refusing to confirm its real plans and intentions. For example, staff at the Hawkesbury printery have heard rumours that the printery is likely to move to Bankstown campus, and shed many jobs in the process. Without confirmation, the National Tertiary and Education Industry Union (NTEU) is unlikely to take action. Yet printery workers, who fear the worst, will start to prepare for being sacked. When the eventual confirmation comes, the staff's anger and preparedness to take action will have been diffused", Fuentes said.
"Until the administration denies that the restructure will mean staff and course cuts, or that students will have to travel further to attend their courses, students are going to mobilise and fight the restructure. We are going to challenge the university administration to campaign to reverse the federal government's university funding cuts rather than implement them with this rationalisation", said Fuentes.
The NTEU's Macarthur branch is in favour of the merger because the university is run "inefficiently". Fuentes demanded that "the university's books be opened to student scrutiny. There is nothing new about the UWS administration overspending on cars or new offices and cutting the budgets of 'less profitable' courses such as adult education or social science subjects.
"The university's idea of what is an inefficiency and that of the students are often completely different. Having a wide range of university courses offered close to where people live, may require smaller institutions to operate more autonomously and thus incur higher administrative costs — but is this 'inefficiency' or an attempt to provide quality, accessible education to people regardless of their financial situation?", Fuentes asked.
Westy Net is organising a series of student and staff public meetings on each UWS campus to discuss the rationalisation and what can be done to defeat it.
For more information on Westy Net phone Andrew Viller, Bankstown Student Representative Council president on 9772 6488 or Silvana Giordano, UWS Nepean women's officer on (02) 4736 0686 or Kylie Moon, western Sydney Resistance organiser on (02) 9635 8449