Australian Labor government “education revolution” leads to Macquarie University job cuts

[Hannah Bell]

Macquarie University in Sydney has angered staff and students by announcing a 7 percent reduction in the funds allocated to faculties for teaching undergraduate students in 2011...

Last year, as part of its “education revolution,” the Labor government unveiled sweeping changes to university funding, introducing what is essentially a student voucher system. From 2012, domestic undergraduate student places will be completely de-regulated and universities will be funded only for the number of students they enrol each year. In positioning themselves for this new regime, many universities have substantially increased their enrolments in high demand courses, while cutting those that do not attract a profitable number of students.

The funding cuts at Macquarie are an inevitable outcome of this market approach to education, which forces universities to compete with each other for enrolments in the most money-making courses, tailor their teaching programs to the needs of employers, and seek alternative sources of revenue, including from international student fees.


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/nov2010/macq-n17.shtml

[bbgrunt]

1. as long as people do not

acknowlege any values beyond money, this sad, sad process will continue. We all become products to be bought and sold.

So sorry to see this happening in Oz. They once had some great egalitarian values. Seems it doesn't matter there which party is in control either. My, how things have changed there since I spent a year teaching there 20 years ago.