QUT says no place for humanities in the real world
30 April 2007
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Vice-Chancellor Peter Coaldrake has announced that QUT will close down its Bachelor of Arts (BA) programme. He says that this is because of “the pattern of QTAC first preferences, OP cut-off scores, high attrition, graduate destination (employment) outcomes, and the School’s continuing unsustainable financial position”.
National Tertiary Education Union Queensland Secretary Margaret Lee says that many humanities staff see this as the philistines at the gate. It seems, she says, that QUT is giving up on the basic disciplines and it is hard to credit a university which does not teach the broad humanities.
NTEU and QUT staff will be challenging Peter Coaldrake to a public debate about the role of humanities and the basic academic disciplines in a modern university. The VC’s approach might well lead to closing down physics, chemistry and mathematics and then claiming there is enough science in genetic engineering.
Some big equity issues emerge from the Vice-Chancellor’s statement. QUT management prides itself on making university accessible. It now seems that being able to boast about how many students have an OP1 is, in the real world, more important than opening university study to the widest range of people.
For more information contact:
Margaret Lee
NTEU Queensland Division Secretary
m.lee@qld.nteu.org.au
07 3816 0345
0407 646 419