Staff demand answers as trimesters, 50pc fewer courses flagged in SA university merger talks
Amid ongoing talks about the future of the multimillion-dollar SA university merger, one senior academic has emailed more than 200 colleagues with a scathing verdict.
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Major shake-ups have been proposed at South Australia’s two biggest universities amid their contentious merger, with one senior academic blasting the “horrifically unsustainable” workload proposed for colleagues.
Last November, the state government secured one of its flagship policies by passing legislation to merge the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia into one super-institution.
The new Adelaide University will open in 2026 and would host more than 70,000 students in what Premier Peter Malinauskas called a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to advance in global rankings and boost research.
The Advertiser understands that in a meeting on Monday January 22, university leaders presented plans for new curriculum guidelines to staff representatives.
These include scrapping semesters for a trimester year, which would effectively accelerate study programs, and moving to a “double major” model while limiting double degrees.
PhD students would be required to take up extra teaching and course design responsibilities, and a combined total of 5000 courses would also be halved to a lean 2500.
It is unclear how many of those courses are simply double-ups, leaving the tertiary union fearful about losing elective classes and breadth of teaching.
A few days later on January 26, senior forensic science lecturer Dr Matthew Sorell wrote an email to more than 200 colleagues hitting out at the “horrifically unsustainable” workload that bureaucrats were proposing on research students.
“Throwing graduate student resources at curriculum and course development is not a scalable solution … the proposed workload will not even remotely meet the spirit, let alone the letter, of Enterprise Bargaining Agreements at either tributary university,” Mr Sorell wrote.
He raised fears that the additional merger-related workload, such as designing online courses, will mean “all momentum in research activity will be lost, contrary to the stated transition plan objectives for research and commercialisation”.
Dr Sorell also blasted the universities’ push for trimester teaching.
“Re-engineering 12 week courses to 10 weeks is not as easy as it looks, and requires rearrangement of course content through complex core and pre-requisite pipelines,” he wrote.
“The misalignment of university and school holidays means that academics with young families will be disproportionately impacted, acting as a severe disincentive for young and early career academics, and disproportionately affecting young academic women.”
His overall assessment was scathing, arguing trimesters would alienate “local, national and global academic talent and “act as a severe disincentive for young and early career researchers to engage in an academic career”.
He recommended the merger be finalised over six to eight years rather than four, in order to “manage workload, course quality and student outcomes”, and sticking to semesters but with extra winter school support.
When contacted by The Advertiser, Dr Sorell declined to comment on the email.
National Tertiary Education Union SA division secretary Andrew Miller said while he had “constructive conversations” with university leaders, the union was pushing to ensure “merger-related activities” didn’t creep into regular staff hours.
“Expectations that staff can deliver quality content while designing entire new suites of courses in such a short time frame and maintaining research output is fanciful,” Mr Miller said.
“The need for extra resources has never been greater, yet hiring quality staff in such an uncertain environment is difficult, meaning that management relies on staff willingness to put in a lot of extra hours, which is neither sustainable nor acceptable.
“Staff have risen to the considerable challenges thus far and should be praised for their commitment and passion to build and deliver quality education.”
A spokesman for the universities refused to comment directly on the new curriculum plans, but stressed that “the new university will maintain a continued level of comprehensive offerings”.
“At this stage academic design teams, made up of discipline experts, are currently working to design the future curriculum for courses and programs in their disciplines,” the spokesman said.
“Their work will then undergo a rigorous peer review and academic governance process before being finalised.
“The academic calendar is yet to be finalised, and engagement with staff and students will be integral as we plan for the future.”
A feasibility study for the merger found the new super-university would generate $500m annually for the state economy by 2034.
The government has also put aside $300 million in perpetual funds to smooth its passage.
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Originally published as Staff demand answers as trimesters, 50pc fewer courses flagged in SA university merger talks
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