Notes on the 2027 Plan
Locked away in the UTS tower is an elusive and omnipotent council. We call them Management, and if you listen closely, you can hear their corporate laughter echoing around the campus walls as they slash your subjects and overwork your tutors. They are governed by one, all-powerful document.
Locked away in the UTS tower is an elusive and omnipotent council. We call them Management, and if you listen closely, you can hear their corporate laughter echoing around the campus walls as they slash your subjects and overwork your tutors. They are governed by one, all-powerful document.
The UTS 2027 plan.
Like the mysterious council themselves, the 2027 plan is difficult to find and even more challenging to understand. But, as students paying thousands of dollars to this institution, it is within your rights to know how UTS is actually run. In my time as President of the UTS Students Association I’ve done a bit of digging, and I’ll do my best to break it down for you. The UTS 2027 plan was introduced in 2018 before COVID-19 completely reshaped the university sector.
A complete document of the plan is impossible to access; however, if you visit the university’s website, you can see a lavish graphic design detailing the breakdown of the plan into five key initiatives (refined from eight listed in the initial launch):
- Lifetime of learning
- Connected research
- Our distinctive identity
- Sustainable partnerships
- Working together.
These all sound good in principle, and they do go some way towards guiding the university to be inclusive and sustainable with high educational outcomes. However, only insofar as these initiatives are profitable. In fact, the key goal of this plan is not to increase student learning learning outputs or improve the quality of education but for the university to be debt-free by 2027.
If Management left their board rooms for a second and stumbled into a tutorial or an online lecture, perhaps they would realise how little this surplus means on the ground. Not to get technical, but the workforce cost as a percen-tage of revenue for this university decreased 11% in the past year, beating their cost-saving targets by 8%. Our increasingly casualised staff are left to fulfil the roles of multiple employees, completing unpaid work after hours to get our essays and reports marked. This is unsustainable for staff and a significant detriment to your education. From larger class sizes, to long waits for E-Requests, to limited feedback for assignments and less time with your academic staff. Our education is being sacrificed at the expense of profits.
And Management knows this.
*Queue evil laugh*
UTS 2027 is the product of the corporate university model which embodies a managerial approach to producing, and selling education. We know that this is not what is best for students. In fighting the 2027 plan, we are fighting back against the notion that management controls the university. With 97% of National Tertiary Education Union members at UTS voting to take action this semester, the time to call out management is now. Staff are fighting for salary increases, job stability, casual employment improvements, union rights, transition leave, and much more. Ultimately, the fight is for better learning and teaching conditions. When your staff are on the picket line this semester, they are actively opposing this plan. Stand with them to prove that the staff and students are the backbone of this institution, not Management. We should be at the centre of how it is run.
After all, their master plan means nothing without someone to impose it on.