Hundreds of job losses, sweeping asset sales and soaring course fees have been set to flow from the Baillieu Government’s $300 million cuts to the TAFE sector, leaked documents suggested.
The confidential TAFE transition plans, leaked on September 13, detailed an array of cutbacks planned by cash-strapped colleges across Victoria.
Leaked details:
The documents indicated at least 14 TAFEs and other higher education campuses would receive severe cuts.
At Swinburne University in Melbourne’s east, administrators were preparing to close the Lilydale campus and cut at least a dozen courses elsewhere.
Swinburne also planned to increase fees by up to 26 per cent and sell its Prahran and Lilydale sites to prop up facilities at Hawthorn, Croydon and Wantirna.
Victoria University expected to cut 99 of 550 teaching staff, increase fees for vocational training in schools, and scrap courses in tourism, animal studies and veterinary nursing.
Holmesglen were trying to acquire Swinburne’s Prahran campus and impose fee rises of 102 per cent, while Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE may sell sites in Preston and Ararat.
In country Victoria, where TAFE is the heart of many communities, GippsTAFE wanted to merge with Chisholm and Advance TAFE, Bendigo has closed its Kyneton campus and will sell off its Castlemaine campus, and Ballarat will reduce its number of schools from seven to four – and that wasn’t even scratching the surface.
Check out the timeline of the events following the Baillieu Government’s TAFE cut announcement in May. Timeline created by Yolanda Redrup.
