Winter schools of discontent

UNIVERSITIES are cutting teaching weeks to make room for winter and summer schools in a reshaping of the tertiary calendar.

Lecturer Mark Finn with students from Swinburne University's winter school program

UNIVERSITIES are cutting teaching weeks and study breaks to make room for winter and summer schools in a reshaping of the tertiary calendar that unions claim is aimed at maximising revenues.

At least five institutions have introduced or are considering introducing changes that shorten semesters.

All institutions offer courses during the summer break, but at least 15 institutions plan to offer some academic programs during the 2008 winter break.

Unions claim the squeeze of the academic calendar is a grab for more money by cash-strapped universities. Winter and summer schools are offered on a full fee as well as a HECS basis.

They are considered attractive, especially to international students, because they allow students to accelerate their degrees.

They are also available to the fee-paying public as continuing education.

Students are protesting that they will get fewer contact hours for the same fees and that the shortened semester will have an impact on academic success. Staff members are worried reduced semesters will force them to rush through their curriculum to finish it in time.

But universities say they are catering for student needs and offering more flexible options.

Murdoch University has cut its teaching weeks from 13 to 12 to fit in a winter and summer school, while the University of NSW will reduce teaching weeks from 14 to 12 and shorten examination periods in 2008.

James Cook University is looking at reducing its semesters for 2009 so students can have their graduation ceremony in December rather than March.

Swinburne University of Technology has cut its consultation week from each semester and reduced study week to fit in a winter school.

RMIT University also cut "swot vac" between classes and exams but the outcry was such that the institution will reinstate it in 2008.

Deakin University is also scrutinising its academic timetable to make more "efficient use of our resources" by "spreading the teaching load more fully across the calendar year".

The university denies the plans will include reduced teaching weeks.

National Tertiary Education Union senior national industrial officer Ken McAlpine said there were concerns about the reshaping of timetables to fit in winter schools. He said winter schools offered students more flexibility but financial pressure on universities was the main motivator.

"I don't think improved education access is the main reason for these moves, it is primarily done to make extra money," Mr McAlpine said.

"The main concern we have with winter schools is that the space between the end of teaching and beginning of exams has been squeezed. Failure rates are going to increase significantly without that time."

He said such timetable changes had led to ridiculous cases in which students' final classes were on a Saturday and their exams started two days later.

Murdoch University Student Guild president Reece Harley said students were being ripped off over the loss of teaching weeks.

"We have less contact hours but we still pay the same amount of fees," he said.

Swinburne University deputy head of higher education Margaret Mazzolini said the institution had trimmed traditional academic semesters to introduce a two-year trial of a winter school.

"We have been doing market research and we found the generation Y students want much more flexibility," she said.

"So we are trialling a more flexible calendar."

Ms Mazzolini said introducing a winter school with HECS-based subjects allowed students to accelerate their courses or spread their subjects across the semesters. She said the university had cut mid-semester consultation weeks and reduced swot vac to fit in the six-week winter term but was looking at reinstating part of the study break next term.

University of NSW academic board president Tony Dooley said a proposal to reduce teaching weeks by 14 to 12 in 2008 was passed to bring UNSW in line with other Group of Eight institutions. The changes meant the university could streamline its summer school, bring graduations forward to December and allow students to do international exchanges doing the winter break.

"It was time to re-evaluate," he said.