The University of Canberra will dramatically reduce its journalism practice units to save money, according to freedom-of-information documents.
The documents reveal the number of units on offer will be reduced from 12 to six.
The FoI request was one of five submitted to the university as part of an investigative journalism unit, which the university then asked students to withdraw.
Students did not withdraw them, however, and according to one of the returned requests, documents show that the faculty of arts and design decided to restructure its communication degrees, including degrees in journalism, public relations and advertising and marketing, to ‘‘provide efficiencies’’.
At the time the proposed changes became public, the university’s official statement was: ‘‘We are currently considering renewing our offerings in journalism to boost journalism graduates’ employability and increase our research in this area’’.
An email to staff explained the need for a restructure by saying the faculty of arts and design had decided to ‘‘provide efficiencies in the delivery of our degree offerings, to reduce the number of units offered, and to free up staff time to focus on research in communication and media studies’’.
Journalism staff, concerned about the cuts, offered an alternative restructure in which the number of units would be cut from 12 to eight or nine.
But it was rejected by the faculty on the grounds that it did not provide enough ‘‘financial viability’’.
Cutting the journalism units to six means that, compared with similar degrees at other Australian universities, the UC journalism degree would have the least amount of journalism practice units in the country.
Some staff have expressed their concern that this would leave their students unprepared and less likely to gain employment once they graduated. The documents showed journalism students were not consulted about the proposed changes, despite assurances from UC about consultation. A statement from UC in December said ‘‘Any changes to the [journalism degree] will include extensive consultation with all stakeholders, including students’’.
An official course proposal document shows the only current student who was consulted was the head of the University of Canberra Student’s Association, Jason Paris.
According to the documents, Mr Paris, who is studying education, was ‘‘broadly supportive of the changes’’ to the journalism degree. There is no evidence that he contacted any journalism students before lending his support to the changes.
Mr Paris declined to comment.
A UC spokesperson said the university consulted extensively before the changes were made.
‘‘The changes were passed unanimously by the faculty’s education committee, the faculty board, the university education committee and the academic board, all of which were attended by a representative from the University of Canberra Students’ Association,’’ the spokesperson said. A course advisory group with industry representatives was created in February to consult on the changes to the degree.
Stephen Darwin, the ACT secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union, said the NTEU had several concerns over the consultation process. ‘‘There are anxieties that neither industry nor students have had sufficient opportunity to input into the shape of this proposed replacement for the bachelor of journalism,’’ Mr Darwin said in a letter to the UC education committee.
The course change proposal also showed graduates from the UC journalism degree who were consulted did not support the changes to the degree.
Lauren Ingram is a University of Canberra student.