Teachers have accused Macquarie College of “hollowing out” the humanities after the establishment introduced a restructure that might halve some arts schools and drastically cut back course choices for some levels.
Below the proposed modifications, seen by Guardian Australia, 42 full-time equal tutorial roles within the College of Arts and 33 within the College of Science and Engineering could be reduce, making about $15m in internet financial savings. Curriculum modifications could be made in 2026 and 2027, with mergers and reductions largely attributed to low enrolment figures.
The proposal, launched to workers on 3 June, stated the prospect of worldwide scholar caps and “uncertainty” in home scholar development meant Australian universities might now not depend on boosting enrolments to make sure monetary sustainability.
“The objective of the changes … is to resize the workforce in areas where current staff profile and capacity is not aligned to student demand.”
Employees have lower than a month to offer suggestions concerning the cuts. A remaining determination is anticipated to be made in early July.
A spokesperson for Macquarie stated the proposed curriculum modifications had been designed to make sure training remained “transformative” for college students.
“The needs of employers and students are evolving and universities, including Macquarie, need to adapt to modern demands,” they stated.
“While we are preserving traditional humanities subjects such as history, philosophy, and English literature, we are at the same time offering majors and courses that are focused on employability and meeting areas of student interest and demand.”
President of the Nationwide Tertiary Schooling Union (NTEU) and tutorial at Macquarie, Dr Alison Barnes, stated she had been receiving “constant calls” from lecturers frightened about modifications at their establishments.
Greater than a dozen universities are present process restructuring, together with ANU, UTS, Western Sydney College and the College of Wollongong. The NTEU estimated that greater than 1,000 roles had been on the road, lower than 5 years after greater than 17,000 job cuts throughout the pandemic – or 13% of the workforce.
“Another round of job cuts is extremely damaging to people’s wellbeing, they’re living with systemic uncertainty,” Barnes stated.
“It’s also having a corrosive impact on students. They need to be able to study things that they are inherently interested in.”
At Macquarie, historic historical past and archaeology, inventive arts, politics and worldwide relations and the varsity of sociology would all lose as much as, or greater than, half of their FTE workers, whereas media and communications – which collectively operates the 2SER radio station with the College of Expertise, Sydney – could be lowered by about one quarter beneath the proposed modifications.
Majors would even be discontinued in a string of research areas together with politics, gender research and performing arts, whereas quite a few bachelor levels could be abolished, together with music, historic historical past and archeology – which might be included into a brand new bachelor of historical past. The variety of media majors would even be lowered from six to 3.
Ten new analysis positions could be created in science and engineering, and two in training.
Barnes stated it “shocked” her that the humanities was being significantly focused.
“It’s this hollowing out of our institutions. You’ve got people who’ve worked their entire lives in these disciplines, and then that knowledge is lost, which is why I think these decisions are so incredibly damaging and shortsighted.
“It’s a travesty, and it’s heartbreaking.”
Appearing president of the Australian Historic Affiliation (AHA), Prof Kate Fullagar, stated the cuts had been a part of the “ongoing devaluation” of humanities at Macquarie and most Australian universities.
“What we’re most concerned about is the reduction in unit offerings and staff – ancient history has been massively depleted, and that sector was clearly the best in the country,” she stated.
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“It took Macquarie 40 or 50 years to build up … it’s the university’s own investment that they’re undermining, and it just seems like recklessness.
“Inevitably, what will happen is that with less offerings and less choices for the students, numbers go down, and then you get into this horrible cycle where they cut you further.”
In an electronic mail despatched to Macquarie college students on 3 June, the deputy vice-chancellor (tutorial), Prof Rorden Wilkinson, stated college students could discover a “more focused structure” to their course, main or items from 2026.
“The units you choose from will be based on the best education offerings in each faculty,” he wrote. “Your study choices will be clearer. The curriculum you study will be more purposeful. Your pathway to graduation will be easier.”
Affiliate professor within the division of historical past and archaeology at Macquarie, Paul McKechnie, who has labored on the college for nearly 20 years, stated it will be difficult to adequately cowl instructing with “so few staff”.
McKechnie stated he was “skeptical” about Macquarie’s claims that the cuts had been being made due to falling scholar numbers. A change paper seen by Guardian Australia, which was printed by the college and distributed to workers, final yr, confirmed the humanities generated $133m in annual revenue however value $48.6m to run.
The vice-chancellor of Macquarie, Prof Bruce Dowton, stated universities in Western democracies had been going through a “range of external pressures” and Australia was no exception.
Macquarie has run a deficit for 5 of the previous six years, together with a $4m loss in 2024. It reduce its workforce in 2020 and 2021 across the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We understand that changes of this nature can be unsettling, and we do not take them lightly,” Dowton stated.
“Our community can be assured that we are proposing these changes because they are needed.”
NTEU department president for Macquarie, and senior lecturer in quantitative sociology, Nicholas Harrigan, stated the cuts had been a “disgrace”.
“That is simply stealing from students,” he stated.
The spokesperson stated the proposed modifications had been the results of “careful planning and reflection”. They stated instructing total was “generally financially sustainable” however that wasn’t “uniformly true”.
“Courses and units with low enrolments are generally more likely to be loss-making after all costs are fully allocated,” they stated.
“Strategic realignment allows us to focus on areas of sustainable strength, invest in emerging disciplines, and make choices to safeguard our future.”
