As you’ve no doubt seen on the ABC or Sydney Morning Herald, UTS is indeed suspending the enrollment of 120 bachelor and postgraduate programs for 2026 prospective students interested in public health, education, and international studies.
In late 2024, UTS Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Parfitt announced a significant organisational overhaul, referred to as the Operational Sustainability Initiative. Documents obtained under FOI also revealed UTS has spent nearly $5 million on external consultants like KPMG to advise on the restructure. Further fuelling anger that money is being funnelled away from teaching and into boardroom consultants while hundreds of staff face potential redundancy. The plan aims to cut 400 positions - 150 academic roles and 250 professional staff - as part of a broader effort to save $100 million annually. These savings are projected to shift the university's finances into a $94 million surplus by 2029.
This is despite UTS bringing in just shy of $500 million in revenue in 2024 from international students alone - $70 million more than 2023. In the same period, Vice-Chancellor Parfitt received a salary of around $935,000. #savingnotspending
Beyond the absurd corporate spin, staff have described a “culture of fear” hanging over the university as they remain in limbo about their jobs. In response, UTS referred affected employees to an “externally developed” wellbeing hub offering mental health tips, including
Put an energetic song on and tell yourself, "I will clean up my room just as long as this song is playing."
Brush and floss your teeth every day.
Start a tea ritual. Choose a type of tea that relaxes you and schedule a daily appointment with yourself to brew and enjoy it.
Find your favourite restaurant online and write them a positive review…
recession and cost of living crisis, it feels particularly salt-in-the-woundish to encourage staff left in the dark about their livelihoods to “brush and floss teeth” in order to “save future dental costs”.
The “temporary suspensions” affect the Faculties of Engineering and IT, Science, Law, Business, Health, the Transdisciplinary School, and Design and Society (the amalgamation of the Social Sciences and Design and Building faculties), suspending entirely the School of International Studies. According to Dr Hossai Gul, a UTS researcher and representative for the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), academics were not consulted on the course suspensions.
UTS had been globally recognised for its international studies program, the previously flagship program having boasted year long programs abroad inbuilt into the Bachelor. Clearly, this was not enough to save the only language learning pathways at UTS. Sarah Attfield, UTS branch president of the National Tertiary Education Union expressed the confusion of staff and students well, asking “What is the vision? What do university leaders actually want?". "This is a public institution. We’re here to provide education, to do research and act for the public good… It's not just UTS, but universities across the board that are losing sight of their function and mission. Staff are just figures on a spreadsheet who make the university happen” Attfield said. "Universities try to run themselves now as businesses, but corporate CEOS are accountable to shareholders. It seems that vice chancellors are not accountable to anybody."
UTS is a leader in an industry wide pattern, with MQU and UOW looking to cut staff, ANU and WSU looking to “save” $250 million and $80 million respectively, and unis across the country overall downsizing their workforce and course offerings.
Australian Universities have never been more clear that they are companies before educational institutions.
In an email released after the suspended courses became public, Kylie Readman, Deputy-Vice Chancellor, assured students that the UTS 2030 plan (which is the driving force behind the cuts) would “not impact current students”. And gave students no further information, just directing them to a FAQ page. You, student reading this, may very well have some of these questions and want answers. So do we.
So Vertigo will be investigating. Keep your eyes peeled (or don’t, honestly. The university takes years to release information — we all might have graduated before we learn anything new)!
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