University of Tasmania slashes degrees in face of coronavirus ‘headwind’

The University of Tasmania will slash its degrees from 514 to fewer than 120 as it reels from coronavirus and other impacts.

The number of degrees on offer at the University of Tasmania will drop from 514 to fewer than 120. Picture: istock

The University of Tasmania will slash its degree offering from 514 to fewer than 120, with job losses expected, as it reels from the coronavirus and other financial impacts.

Vice-chancellor Rufus Black on Tuesday emailed staff to warn of “a very strong headwind” from the COVID-19 outbreak, as well other changes impacting overseas students and a decline in local school leaver enrolments.

“In the face of it, we are not making enough progress to be the right size to be sustainable even in the short-term,” Professor Black told staff.

“The year sees us start a long way behind our budget and with more financial challenges to come.”

University academics are bracing for job losses and called on management to consider alternative savings.

The National Tertiary Education Union told The Australian this should include reconsidering new building construction linked to UTAS’ plans to move operations into the centres of Launceston and Hobart.

NTEU Tasmania secretary Dr Kelvin Michael said it was hoped the streamlining of degrees and units could be done without significant job losses and without forced redundancies.

However, some job losses were likely. “Some areas of teaching may not survive the cull,” Dr Michael said. “It is concerning. We’re facing a large disruption to university operations as a result of the coronavirus.”

He urged the university to consider deferring new building construction related to its plans to shift much of its Newnham Campus to the centre of Launceston and its Sandy Bay campus to the centre of Hobart.

“There is some obligation on the university management to – instead of looking for savings in staff numbers – to also look at other ways of saving money,” Dr Michael said.

“That should include deferring capital works, particularly the building of new infrastructure in Hobart and Launceston, because right now that could be seen as a bit of a luxury.”

Professor Black said there was no need for redundancies to be “decided quickly”. However, he warned the university was “not currently on a trajectory” to have enough students, enough money to invest in research and teaching facilities, or to sustain all its locations.

Announcing a series of staff meetings, he conceded UTAS had an “over-reliance” on Chinese students, but said British visa changes favourable to overseas students had seen more Chinese and Indian students choose the UK.

He did not reveal which degrees were likely to be targeted for removal but suggested UTAS needed to focus on the “intrinsic strengths that come from serving our island place.”

This may mean courses in marine and Antarctic science, as well as agriculture and aquaculture, are protected from the restructure while more generic degrees in education, law, humanities and the social sciences are streamlined.