Uni merger ‘sham’ call

Hamish Heard
Sham consultations on Deakin University plans to merge its arts and education faculties have dealt a blow to staff morale, according to a senior education union figure.
National Tertiary Education Union senior industrial officer Linda Gale said staff from Deakin’s arts and education faculties feared education standards would suffer and jobs would be lost under the proposal.
Ms Gale said Deakin vice chancellor Professor Sally Walker had given staff until yesterday to provide feedback despite giving them less than three weeks to digest the plan.
“The vice chancellor has launched a process of socalled consultation with staff which seems to have been conducted with unseemly haste,” Ms Gale said.
“The consultation process has been rushed through during the semester break, so the whole process can be described as superficial at best.”
Ms Gale accused the university of putting its financial bottom line ahead of students’ rights to quality education and employees’ job security.
A Deakin spokesperson denied cost savings were behind the proposed merger.
“The dean of the Faculty of Education at Deakin University, Professor Shirley Grundy, has recently left to take up a position at the University of Hong Kong,” the spokesperson said.
“Following such a senior level departure it’s an appropriate that the location of the faculty within the university be reconsidered.”