Students and staff at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) are campaigning against the administration’s decision to cut critical courses and staff.
The restructure, announced in May, includes cutting at least 12 academic staff and removing dedicated programs in tourism, sociology, philosophy, political science and German.
UTAS is merging Politics and International Relations into one major, cutting some philosophy units and only giving Indonesian a temporary extension.
Management will move Social Work, Policing and Emergency Management into the Health College, split Creative Arts and Media into a standalone Conservatorium of Music and a new School of Creative and Performing Arts and fold media studies into the already merged School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Save UTAS Arts has been campaigning against these cuts, organising petitions, banner drops and student consultation. It has also met with university executives and is talking to local and state politicians and the media to spread awareness.
These cuts show that UTAS management has embraced the neoliberal market-driven education model, which means cutting critical staff and courses to balance budgets.
As successive governments have reduced public funding for universities, from 0.9% of gross domestic product in 1995 to 0.6% in 2021, universities have turned to student fees, particularly from international students, to fill the funding gap.
The focus on finding more funds has led universities to behave more like businesses than public institutions, and turned education into a product to be sold, with students becoming “customers”. University management has overseen ballooning administrative overheads and management wages, while largely casualising academic and teaching staff.
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the fragility of the neoliberal model, as tight border restrictions cut off universities’ lucrative international student fees.
While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s attempt to impose international student caps last year was defeated, the government has implemented a “slow-down” mechanism which, according to the Australian Financial Review, has led to a 30% decline in international student visa applications.
Universities are scrambling to cut costs by targeting experienced staff, specialist disciplines and entire faculties. Meanwhile management has protected itself; UTAS Vice-Chancellor Rufus Black has kept his annual $1.11 million salary.
UTAS claims to be consulting staff and students. However, it is little more than retrospective justification for decisions already made.
Many courses suffer from chronic underinvestment, loss of staff and a reduction of in-person teaching, issues that predate the pandemic. Addressing these would require meaningfully engaging with those most affected — students and staff.
UTAS has already systematically hollowed out the courses on the chopping block, so they can be declared unsustainable. If change was necessary, cutting executive salaries and utilising UTAS’ multi-million dollar property portfolio should be considered.
According to a survey conducted by Save UTAS Arts, only 2% of students feel like they had a say in the decision-making process. While the Tasmania University Student Association was formally consulted, it said it was not listened to. Students have a huge stake in these decisions; they are often taking on years of debt to study.
UTAS’ decision to scrap tourism courses is particularly egregious, when the industry accounts for 15.8% of Tasmania’s workforce — about 50,800 jobs. Tourism accounts for 10.8% of the state’s gross product.
UTAS claims students will be able to achieve similar outcomes in business degrees or vocational training, but ethical and ecological challenges, and Tasmania’s complex history and Aboriginal cultural heritage, require skilled professionals and educators.
According to the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Tasmania has the worst literacy rate in Australia, with half the population lacking adequate reading skills for daily needs, while also facing disadvantage in English and humanities outcomes.
This points to a dire need for more government investment in education, not cuts to arts and humanities courses.
[Follow @Save_UTAS_Arts on Instagram for updates. Solomon Doyle is a University of Tasmania student and a campaigner with Save UTAS Arts.]