Management proposes a new structure for the Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences – it’s been “static since inception” 

What’s the problem: Student numbers are up in nursing and allied health areas but “stable or declining in engineering, built environment and science programmes”.

Research is strong in agriculture and environment but “dispersed” across six operating units. This, management states in a change proposal “may be contributing to lack of visibility and low load … some secondary schools in our region have been unaware that the university offers agricultural science programmes.”

What’s proposed: Reorganising six schools into seven, from;

* civil eng and surveying * mech and electrical eng * sciences * pysch and counselling * nursing and midwifery and * health and midwifery

to

* engineering * spacial sciences, built environment * physical and computational sciences * agric and environment (“research intensive”) * psych and human services * nursing and midwifery (unchanged) and * allied health

This all appears to be about reorganisation, not retrenchments – there is no mention of academic or professional staff jobs going.

Consultation is now open, with a final structure scheduled for November.

They like a restructure at USQ: A mass of admin areas have been reorganised over the last three years (CMM July 16). The university also has a new strategic plan, focused on agriculture, health, regional development and space, defence. With Research and Innovation and the Faculty of Business, Education, Arts and Law reorganised there can’t be much left to do after this one.