Federation University's plans to cut one third of ongoing staff members in Humanities and Social Sciences will be disastrous for the institution, its students and education in the regions, Dr Mathew Abbott, NTEU Branch President at Federation University, said today.
Staff members at Fed Uni are raising concerns about managerial incompetence at the university, leading to declining student enrolments in many programs, including in the Bachelor of Arts.
"In the past five years the Bachelor of Arts has been reconstructed repeatedly without properly consulting staff. Degree majors have been abolished, then suddenly put back in, while many subjects have been butchered," Dr Abbott said.
On August 24 a majority of staff members in the School of Arts endorsed a Motion of No Confidence in School management, citing a 'dereliction of duty' on behalf of the Dean of Arts, Professor Andrew Hope.
"At no time during Professor Hope's tenure has he engaged the School of Arts staff in efforts to arrest this decline nor has he demonstrated any vision for reinvigorating the program," the motion reads.
The Federation University Branch of the NTEU argues cuts will not slow the decline of enrolments in the Bachelor of Arts, nor improve student retention. Instead, they will worsen these problems by narrowing what the university offers students.
The staffing cuts will increase the workloads of remaining staff, hurting teaching quality and undermining access to quality university education for students in the regions around the Ballarat and Gippsland campuses.
Last year, 82% of staff members in Arts signed a petition raising concerns about unreasonable academic workloads in the School and negative impacts on the professionalism and quality of their work as well as their health, safety and work/life balance.
"Some staff members are wondering whether the university is genuinely committed to the longevity of the Arts program or whether this is all just designed to shift the bulk of teaching online. Students are tired of on-line learning and so are staff. We are all keen to return to a safe campus and get on with it," Dr Abbott said.
The NTEU is raising concerns about the lack of proper consultation involved in this change process, citing a recent article in the La Trobe Valley Express where a University spokesperson informed the media about the redundancies.
The statistics cited in this article are misleading, the Union says, because they do not consider the hundreds of students in other programs taught by staff in Arts, nor the substantial amounts of postgraduate supervision carried out by targeted staff members.
The Union is also concerned about the deliberate exclusion of an NTEU representative from a staff meeting to discuss the proposed redundancies.
The Union and staff members are calling on the university to start taking seriously the firsthand knowledge and expertise of university teachers so that the problems with enrolment and student retention can be properly addressed.
As well as the Motion of No Confidence, staff in Arts have endorsed a motion calling on the School to explore alternative proposals for addressing declining enrolments, including reducing costs by reducing the number of management staff across Schools, carrying out an External Review of the School of Arts, or waiting to assess the impact of new marketing initiatives.
Quote attributable to Colin Muir, Fed Uni NTEU Branch Organiser, 0425 753 755:
"Federation University seems intent on manipulating facts to fit their narrative. If the University was really interested in fixing their problems they would properly engage with their staff to develop real solutions. Unfortunately they seem intent on simply managing the decline of quality regional education."
