The University of Western Sydney is about to slash funding for Student Support Services, the division within the uni that provides Counselling, Disability Support, Chaplaincy, the Learning Skills Unit and Careers and Employment.  It comes as part of an effort to reduce the budget of Corporate Services (where Student Support Services is located) by $2.5 million. 

The Careers and Employment Unit have already been informed that they will be disbanded, however the university has yet to make a formal, public announcement.  According to the information received by The Western Onion, this move has the formal sanction of Vice Chancellor Janice Reid. 

The disbanding of the Careers and Employment Unit will make UWS unique in Australia as it will be the only university in the country without a careers service.  Staff have yet to be informed where the further cuts will take place, but at this time it appears that Counselling and Disabilities will not be directly targeted for cuts.  

According to one staff member, “An email was sent by Jan Reid last year which said the first groups to be targeted in the budget cuts would be the Educational Development Centre and Student Support Services.  Given the current situation of our students, both of these groups should be gaining budgets not losing them.”

Within Student Support Services, the other unit that looks likely to bear the brunt of the cuts is the Learning Skills Unit.  As a member of the Learning Skills Unit explained, further cuts to this valuable unit will have a detrimental impact to some students across UWS.  “This is at a time when student retention is the focus of the university and we have a quality audit in September.  It is also a year when students with lower UAI’s are being enrolled at UWS.  The student population at UWS is deserving of extra support (compared to the sandstone universities) because we have higher numbers of first generation, non-english speaking background, and mature age students.  To threaten to remove any of our services is outrageous and to virtually cut our staff in half would obviously mean we could only provide half the support currently provided.”

These services are vital for UWS students.  Careers and Employment provide ongoing assistance to students seeking help with resumes and skill development, as well as providing individual career counselling to over 800 students in 2005.  They also maintain a comprehensive website that includes a vacancy listing service.  The website recorded 66,000 student visits in 2005.

The Learning Skills Unit assists student’s academic performance by providing workshops, bridging courses and academic preparation programs in language and maths, as well as helping new students learn effective studying and researching strategies.  They also run the Peer Mentoring program, which teams up first years with more senior students undertaking the same course.

University of Western Sydney Student’s Association President Tim Jarrett has called on students to send letters of protest to the Vice Chancellor.   He says, “along with the bus cuts, introduction of parking fees, the number of offered units being halved, raising of HECS, the cuts to student support services are just another burden the students must bear in order for the university to make its budget break even.  However, what good is a balanced budget if it comes at the cost of a decent education at UWS?  Students are the primary stakeholder in the university and it is about time that the administration starts recognising us as such.”

    However, it appears that the University already has a surplus.  On February 15^th, the Chair of the Strategy and Resources Committee reported to the Board of Trustees that the “University had achieved a commendable turnaround from an expected deficit for the year of $6.5 million to an operating surplus in the order of $2.0 million.”

Students who wish to register their complaint about these funding cuts are advised to contact the Vice Chancellor Janice Reid at vc@uws.edu.au or on 9678 7801 or Deputy Vice Chancellor and Director of Corporate Services Rhonda Hawkins at r.hawkins@uws.edu.au or on 9678 7819.  

Keep an eye out for further developments in future issues of The Western Onion or on the UWSSA website.

[This article is reprinted from The Western Onion, Issue 2, 2006. A link to the article is provided via the Wayback Machine.]