Cutting courses, constraining costs in Uni Sydney FASS

Casual academics call on management to reverse cuts to “up to 30 per cent of courses” in arts

In a letter to Vice Chancellor Michael Spence and Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Annamarie Jagose 100 plus casual staff call on them to reverse cuts to units in the faculty. “These cuts will not only undermine the scope and integrity of students’ degrees. They will also have a devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable members of our university community—those hundreds of casualised staff who do the bulk of teaching in FASS,” the signatories warn.

However, Professor Jagose says the university, “is not cutting 30 per cent of its units of study.”

“Given the steep projected decline in student enrolments, however, we are working closely at discipline level to ensure that costs are responsibly constrained. This will involve pausing some units of study, adjusting teaching delivery in others and using bequest funding, where available, to maintain a breadth of subject offerings,” she says.