Uni Turmoil: Full Fees For Law, Arts Scrapped

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday February 16, 2004

Matthew Thompson, Higher Education Reporter

Graduate-entry law would be available only to students paying full fees, arts would be scrapped at two campuses, and scores of subjects deleted under an internal review at the University of Western Sydney.

The UWS student union has vowed to fight the recommendations, which a university spokesman said were due to be finalised ``very soon" after the window for responses closes mid next month.

Any changes would be implemented from next year.

The discussion paper, The UWS Undergraduate Academic Program: Proposed actions and future directions, blames the need for ``hard strategic decisions" on the Federal Government's higher education changes, under which the university's funding profile will be updated to recognise the shift in demand from expensive courses such as agriculture to cheaper ones such as business.

To ease the transition, the Government has allocated the university more than $7 million extra over three years.

The paper points to flaws in the university's structure, saying ``UWS has never been a financially rich institution, yet the range of undergraduate academic programs offered . . . is the second most diverse in the country".

The plethora of programs outdoes the comparably sized universities of Sydney and NSW, says the report, which followed a review which started last May and was led by the Pro Vice-Chancellor (academic), Nigel Bond.

The paper calls for a dozen courses to be scrapped, including mathematics and information technology, aviation studies, environmental planning, wine-making and liberal studies.

The discussion paper also recommends that the university, which has six campuses, ``reduce the number of courses that it currently offers across multiple campuses".

It wants a ``consolidation of [11] courses", which would see the Penrith campus being stripped of economics, accounting and early childhood education; Bankstown would lose secondary teaching; arts and communication would go from Blacktown and Campbelltown; and health science would be lost to Parramatta and Penrith.

``New courses will be limited to being offered on one campus", the report says. It also recommends that graduate-entry law students no longer be entitled to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, a Commonwealth-subsidised interest-free loan scheme whereby graduates can delay repaying their debt until their income reaches $35,000.

By charging full fees for graduate-entry law an undergraduate course for those with a degree the university would ``be brought into line with other professional postgraduate awards", the report says.

The student association's education officer at Penrith and Parramatta campuses, Ben Chapman, said it would campaign against any proposals that raised fees or disadvantaged students.

© 2004 Sydney Morning Herald

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