The College of Know-how Sydney will shut its instructor schooling program and public well being college as a part of a sweeping restructure that will take away greater than 1,100 topics to return the establishment to surplus.
The proposed cuts, launched on Wednesday, are a part of the debt-ridden college’s technique to cut back expenditure by $100m yearly, together with beforehand saying the slicing of about 400 jobs.
Underneath the proposal, the college {of professional} apply and management could be closed as a part of a plan to cut back the entire variety of colleges from 24 to fifteen, and the school of legislation, enterprise college and transdisciplinary college could be mixed.
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The school of well being could be disestablished and develop into the self-discipline of public well being throughout the college of sport, train and rehabilitation, to be renamed the “college of well being and human efficiency”, and the worldwide research and schooling college could be rested.
The proposal’s launch was delayed for every week after SafeWork NSW imposed a uncommon order that the establishment should pause job cuts over the chance of “critical and imminent danger of psychological hurt” to workers.
Lecturers at UTS had described emotions of stress and a “tradition of worry” after the college quickly paused pupil enrolments for 120 of its 615 programs till the top of the autumn 2026 semester.
The up to date proposal, seen by Guardian Australia, stated UTS would discontinue 167 programs and 1,101 topics – or 31% – after sustaining 5 years of deficits, escalating prices and adjustments to authorities coverage.
It stated decreasing expenditure by $100m yearly was important to repay a $300m bond taken by UTS and fund “important capital and strategic necessities over the following 5 years”.
Some $30m yearly was anticipated to be saved by making 134 full-time workers redundant, together with 55 in design and society, 30 in enterprise and 22 in well being – excluding voluntary separations.
The proposal stated programs recognized to be reduce didn’t “meet thresholds referring to precise and predicted pupil demand, monetary viability, or strategic alignment”, set by enrolment traits, their value margins and whether or not they had “analysis strengths”.
The brink was topics with fewer than 50 pupil enrolments yearly. Of the 1,101 to be discontinued, 463 had no pupil enrolments and weren’t taught in 2024.
The chair of a New South Wales legislative council inquiry into the college sector, Dr Sarah Kaine, described the proposed closures as “a direct menace to the general public mission of upper schooling” within the state.
“These are usually not simply educational disciplines – they’re pillars of our public infrastructure,” Kaine stated.
“To dismantle them in the course of a instructor scarcity disaster and ongoing public well being challenges, significantly in Indigenous communities, is indefensible.”
The state authorities inquiry into college governance, transparency and the general public worth of upper schooling was prompted final month after a petition signed by 1000’s of workers and college students who stated the college sector in NSW was in “disaster” because of “drastic restructures”.
Kaine stated universities have been “not companies”.
“They’re civic establishments with an obligation to serve the general public good. We should shield the disciplines that serve our society – not abandon them in pursuit of short-term monetary targets.”
The Nationwide Tertiary Training Union NSW division secretary, Vince Caughley, stated the college’s plan was an “abandonment of their obligation to workers, college students and the broader neighborhood”.
“UTS recorded document earnings in 2024, workers prices are decrease in actual phrases than in 2019, and their very own modelling exhibits the college would return to surplus by 2029 with out cuts,” he stated.
“But the vice-chancellor and his executives are inflicting turmoil on workers merely to deliver that surplus ahead by two years.”
The UTS department president of the NTEU, Dr Sarah Attfield, stated workers had given “viable alternate options” to job and course cuts however alleged that they had been “dismissed”. Workers have 4 weeks to supply suggestions on the proposal.
“The dearth of transparency, the choices made with out consulting workers and college students, and the shutting down of legitimate criticism have all led to workers dropping religion within the management at UTS,” Attfield stated.
The vice-chancellor of UTS, Prof Andrew Parfitt, stated UTS was centered on reaching a “sustainable future” the place it might “proceed to ship analysis outcomes for the communities that profit from our work”.
“Our dedication to public schooling and deal with the coed expertise is paramount.”
He stated any discontinuation of programs would apply from subsequent yr, and present college students would be capable of full their programs.
“With the intention to alleviate uncertainty and stress proper throughout our neighborhood, we’re taking each measure we will to restrict impacts and guarantee alternatives for engagement, session and suggestions,” he stated.
