Reply to Vice Chancellor Harman

Dear Friend of Victoria University

In response to a letter sent to all western region politicians by Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Harman attempting to justifying campus closures and the decision to sack 270 staff, Friends of Victoria University have recently sent a letter in reply. For your interest and edification, please find a copy of the letter below and attached.

Regards
Paul


Wednesday 18 March


Dear ___________________


The Friends of Victoria University (FoVU) is a community group formed to represent the interests of the community, students and staff. FoVU is dedicated to working cooperatively with the University to maximise educational opportunities in the western suburbs.

On March 6 2009 the Vice Chancellor of Victoria University (VU) wrote to you concerning campus closures and staff redundancies. In 15 pages of material the Vice Chancellor sought to defend the VU Council’s decisions of late October 2008. The Friends of Victoria University want to take this opportunity to provide a brief response to the Vice Chancellor’s letter.

A Flawed and Secretive Process

The Vice Chancellor does not address one of the central criticisms that has been levelled at VU Council and management, that of a lack of consultation. As early as 28 October 2008 Don Nardella MP, Member for Melton enunciated this view in the Legislative Assembly:

“Professor Harman does not care, does not undertake real consultation or listen to reason, and is callous about sacking 270 people, with real families, just before Christmas. ….. For an intellectual, Professor Harman has not done any hard thinking in conjunction with local communities, students, staff and other stakeholders to build this institution, not to disassemble it and weaken it…”

FoVU believes that the secretive way that the campus closures was considered and decided upon is constitutes unacceptable behaviour from a major public institution. VU failed to consult the local communities, Commonwealth, State and Local Governments, staff and students.

The timing of the decision, to coincide with the completion of the academic year, was also ill-considered. The criticism in relation to process is not a point-scoring exercise about the past. Currently the University is considering which courses will continue to be offered.

VU refuse to be open with the community about which courses may be cut. Again, it is their intention to make a decision first and notify the community last.

Education in Sunbury and Melton

The Vice Chancellor seeks to justify the decision to close these campuses. One of the factors she points to is the proportion of local students at the campuses. Our response is that the central purpose of VU is to help overcome the long-standing under-representation of Western Suburbs students participating in higher education.

The goal should be to increase the proportion of local students, and VU and stakeholders should do the ‘hard thinking’ required to achieve that. Context is also important here, and while the current proportion of local students is not high enough, it will be zero when the Melton and Sunbury campuses close.

And of course our major consideration should be those students, present and future, who will be lost to higher education altogether due to this decision.

FoVU feels that one thing is certain; closing the Melton and Sunbury campuses will reduce the level of participation in higher education within those communities. This runs counter to the legislated objectives of VU and counter to the policy of the Commonwealth Government, announced by the Deputy Prime Minister on March 9 2009.

“I want to announce today that the Government will pursue vigorously the ambition that by 2020, 20 per cent of higher education enrolments at undergraduate level should be of people from low socio-economic backgrounds. … Equity is an essential element of reform. We want to see our higher education institutions giving every Australian the opportunities they deserve and the nation needs.”

We believe it is not too late for VU to reconsider their decision to close the Melton and Sunbury campuses.

Worsening Student-Staff Ratios: Disadvantaging low SES students in the west

In October 15 last year the Vice Chancellor announced 270 academic staff would be retrenched or one quarter of the entire academic workforce which would give Victoria University, if carried out, the equal worst student/staff ratio in Australia (with CQU). At the present time the University has the sixth worst student/staff ratio in Australia.

The Vice Chancellor also claims that employee costs are too high. However, VU’s academic teaching pay scale is ranked 30 out of 37 in Australia. The poor student-staff ratio and relatively low pay rates makes VU academic staff the sixth most productive academic workforce in Australia.

The Vice Chancellor claims in her letter that ‘many staff understand’ the need for retrenchments at the University. In fact in a recent industrial ballot conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission over 90% of NTEU members voted to take industrial action, as a result of the the proposed retrenchments among other things.

We call on you to write to the VU Council and ask them to embark on a process with the community and Governments to develop an alternative strategy.

We also want to take this opportunity to invite you to become an Associate Member of FoVU to recognise the unique role that the community played in the formation of VU and the vital role that we need to play in ensuring a strong future for our university.

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely
Raoul Wainright and Broden Borg
Friends of Victoria University Co-Convenors
www.friendsofvu.org.au