“Staff and students lose” under USyd’s 12-week semester proposal

Jayfel Tulabing and Fabian Robertson cover the SRC’s ‘No to 12-week semesters’ forum. 

Panellists condemned USyd’s12-week semester proposal as a threat to the student experience and staff livelihood at the SRC’s forum last Thursday. The forum was coordinated in response to Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education) Pip Patterson’s proposal that the University transition to a 12-week semester, as opposed to the existing 13-week system. A poll conducted by the SRC found that 93.6% of the 375 respondents did not support a reduction in semester length.

Concerns centred on the increased workload, loss of wages, and impact on the quality of education as a result of the condensed teaching periods. Panellists identified STEM students, law students, students undertaking placements, international students, Student Centre staff, and teaching staff as the groups to be most negatively impacted by the proposed change.

SRC President Swapnik Sanagavarapu contextualised the discussion by rejecting the University’s claim that the proposal was aimed at facilitating more intensive learning, seasonal experiences, and career opportunities in the breaks between semesters.

“The fundamental reason at the end of the day is cost-cutting. They’re going to be paying people less if there is one less teaching week across the semester ... That’s a lot of cash that’s being saved.”

Sanagavarapu argued that the change would threaten the capacity for staff to maintain the level of assessment, workload, and course content that is possible in the current 13-week structure.

“In any scenario, staff and students lose,” he said.

Sydney University Law Society Education Officer Sinem Kirk explained that law students would be among the most affected.

“Law is very reading intensive. That one extra week is very important for students to catch up on the content,” she said.

Junior Vice President of Sydney University Engineering Undergraduates Association Bella Anderssen echoed this sentiment in articulating her “passion” against the proposal.

“Content, especially for STEM students, is already incredibly heavy and the assumption that tutors and unit of study coordinators can adapt to such demanding changes is ignorant.” 

Anderssen also pointed out that the reduced semester-length would force students in degrees that required placement periods, like Medicine and Nursing, to undertake their placements over the summer.

President of the Sydney University Postgraduate Association Minran Liu said the impact of the changes were unfair to international students, who “pay a large amount of money for their education”.

USyd librarian and Community & Public Sector Unionist Grant Wheeler reiterated this notion, raising concerns about the impact of earlier dates for intensive units as a result of semesters finishing earlier.

“The last thing we want to see is student visas jeopardised because intensives have been moved forward and the administration getting them ready to start those intensives is not up to scratch,” he said.

Wheeler highlighted how earlier dates intensive would also exacerbate working conditions and “create massive problems” for Student Centre staff, who aren’t allowed to take leave over the Christmas period due to the need to prepare for Semester 1.

Student Centre staff are required to process results for the year before the commencement of January Intensives. With intensives set to start as early as January 6 under the proposal, staff will be put under enormous pressure.

“They are already so busy that they can’t attain leave. This squeezes the preparation time that they have into an even smaller period of time. This has the potential to have a grievous impact on the mental health of staff in that area,” he said.

“The people at the top don’t suffer the direct consequences of that problem. It is the people at the coalface who have to deal with those issues, that bear the burden of the consequences of bad decisions,” he said.

Wheeler encouraged students and staff to protest and tarnish the reputation of the university among its potential benefactors.

“The more you can do to disrupt in terms of action on the streets, making a lot of noise, making it obvious at how unhappy you are with the university, the better.”

Sanagavarapu censured USyd senior management in his closing remarks.

“There are forty Super-Intendent Chalmers in the senior management on one and a half million dollars. I find it preposterous to think that they know what it’s like to be a student or be a staff member at this time… these are fundamentally usurpers. They have no legitimate mandate to rule over us, particularly when the way that they rule over us is so fundamentally against our interests.”

“Staff working conditions are student learning conditions - that has never been truer. It is not just our moral and principled duty, it is actually in our interests to stand with them,” he said.

The 12-week proposal will be voted on by the Academic Board on 4 May.

The SRC is holding a rally to protest the proposal at 1 pm on Thursday 29 April outside of Fisher Library. The Facebook event can be found here.