Macquarie University are trimming the fat as more than 75 jobs are axed and courses scrapped.
The Faculty of Arts are facing 42 job losses while the Faculty of Science and Engineering will see 33 job losses.
Students studying a Bachelor of Arts will now no longer be able to study gender studies, politics, criminology, and psychological studies as majors. Bachelor degrees in archelogy, music, ancient languages, sociology, and ancient history will be discontinued.
Similarly, Masters degrees in electronic engineering, ancient history, and some IT fields will be scrapped.
This cut by Macquarie University marks a total of over 1000 job losses at NSW universities, including UTS, the University of Wollongong, and Western Sydney University.
‘I and so many other staff at Macquarie had an absolutely sick feeling in our stomachs when these cuts were announced. My heart just sank,’ said NTEU MQ Branch President, Dr Nicholas Harrigan. ‘We are real people whose lives are being turned upside down for the sake of thin arguments about budgets and prioritisation. Macquarie just released their annual report and the budget is more or less balanced.’
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said, ‘This terrible decision is yet another shocking example of poor university governance, which needs urgent reform so we have accountability and transparency. Scrapping courses and cutting jobs slowly picks away at the fabric of our society that needs world-class higher education to thrive.’
On the 18th of June, almost 100 staff and students gathered to protest the slashing of jobs and courses. Though they were refused entry into Macquarie Chancellery Building, the group continued to protest across campus for two hours.
