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The University of Technology Sydney has ended early entry in a major departure for school leavers, as the institution also grapples with damning findings from the national student ombudsman and a workforce going on strike.
Facing pressure on multiple fronts this week, the university’s broader outlook is also mired in trouble – last year it embarrassingly backflipped on plans to shutter courses and sack 10 per cent of its workforce in a bid to address its $80 million debt, while vice chancellor Andrew Parfitt remains under fire for his $935,000 salary.
“There are so many different things going on. It’s not good for the university, it’s not good for staff or for students,” National Tertiary Education Union UTS branch president Dr Sarah Attfield said.
UTS responded separately to each of the issues that have emerged this week.
Early entry ‘retired’
Current year 12s who had planned to apply for early entry at UTS will be disappointed – from the start of next year, would-be students must wait for main round offers or apply for early entry via the University Admission Centre’s school recommendation scheme. Popular courses including accounting, IT, nursing and sports science are excluded from that.
UTS staff were told on Monday of the move, which the university says is fairer and more transparent.
Early entry applications have almost doubled since the scheme’s 2022 inception, but fewer students are taking them up: in 2022, 25.3 per cent of students arrived at UTS via early entry, compared to 14.2 per cent this year.
“UTS has been working with schools and careers advisers to ensure early awareness of these changes and to reassure them that every school leaver aspiring to study at UTS will continue to have excellent opportunities,” a spokesperson said. Popularised during the pandemic, early entry has become increasingly controversial and there are concerns it undermines the HSC.
University of Newcastle education lecturer Dr Sally Patfield has studied early entry and says while UTS continues to offer alternative pathways to disadvantaged groups, the change is disappointing.
“Early entry is particularly important for students from equity backgrounds; it really makes a difference in opening up higher education.”
‘Effectively silenced’
UTS was one of three universities singled out by the national student ombudsman in a damning report into complaint handling.
In its first investigation since being established last year, the ombudsman found UTS had “effectively silenced” a student, codenamed Ms Y, who complained of sexual harassment by investigating her for an alleged breach of confidentiality when she spoke to other students about her experience.
Ms Y complained about sexual harassment from a peer last year, which the university investigated. Four months later, UTS said its investigator found “insufficient evidence” to support Ms Y’s allegations and that she would instead be investigated for a breach of confidentiality.
The ombudsman found that the university had no evidence the student spoke about her experiences.
“I wouldn’t feel confident ever reporting anything again,” the student told the ABC.
The report said: “A concern about the integrity of the investigation process should not have progressed to limiting [the student] from being able to talk about her experience of gender-based violence.”
The University of Newcastle and James Cook University were also pinged for improper use of confidentiality clauses that put student wellbeing at risk.
UTS has agreed to implement all recommendations.
“No one going through a complaint process should ever feel isolated or vulnerable. Our systems and processes in previous years have clearly not been adequate,” said deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Professor Kylie Readman.
“We have stopped using confidentiality requirements and will undertake meaningful consultation with students.”
Industrial action
The university will be under pressure on another front on Thursday when its unionised workforce goes on strike for 24 hours in pursuit of greater job security, fairer workloads and a pay rise.
This will be the first full-day strike since enterprise bargaining began six months ago.
“Most of our big claims are around improving job security and change management. Members want us to try and improve processes around the provision of information, reasons for changes, transparency and consultation process,” Attfield said.
In an email to staff, chief operating officer Glen Babington said: “We respect the right of staff to participate in lawful industrial action. We remain committed to negotiating in good faith, providing staff with clear and accurate information and progressing an agreement that supports our people and the future of UTS.”
Next week will see the departure of the first tranche of academic staff who took a redundancy under a major restructure aiming to save the university hundreds of millions of dollars.
About 100 staff will take voluntary redundancies before June. Announcing organisational changes in November, Parfitt said in an email the “difficult choices are necessary to set UTS up for resilience and future success”.
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