A Sydney university has temporarily suspended scores of courses amid a dispute with the academic union over a proposal to cut about 400 jobs to meet a A$100 million (?48 million) savings target.

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has halted new intakes in almost 150 programmes ¨C including undergraduate majors, bachelor¡¯s and master¡¯s degrees, graduate certificates and doctorates ¨C before student recruitment activities commence for the 2026 academic year.

Vice-chancellor Andrew Parfitt told staff that ¡°no decision has been made to discontinue any course¡±, but the university wanted to avoid enrolling new students into programmes that may subsequently be scrapped.

He said the approach had been agreed during a ¡°conciliation conference¡± with the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), which has lodged a dispute with the Fair Work Commission over the university¡¯s savings proposals.

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¡°It is an operational decision that is intended to minimise potential disruption and dissatisfaction for prospective students¡­if courses [are] subsequently changed or discontinued,¡± Parfitt told staff.?

The university said the move would have no impact on current students ¡°at this time¡±, and would not affect any current teaching arrangements, staff roles, workloads or employment conditions.

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It said the suspension covered admissions up to and including the autumn semester between February and June next year. While all the affected courses had ¡°low student enrolments¡±, no decision would be taken on their future before staff and unions had been consulted through an upcoming ¡°change proposal process¡±.

Affected courses include honours degrees in business, public health and medical science; master¡¯s degrees in urban design, financial analysis and environmental engineering management; a graduate certificate in mathematics; and six majors in environmental science, maths and physics.

Many of the courses are niche double degrees combining areas such as communication, journalism, education and international studies with subfields like property economics, cybersecurity, sound design and construction project management. The university stressed that there was no intention to jettison broad disciplines.

The NTEU said that while it had anticipated course suspensions, their ¡°scale¡± had ¡°taken everyone by surprise¡±. UTS branch president Sarah Attfield said a permanent scrapping of the courses could ¡°wipe out¡± the university¡¯s teaching in education, international studies and public health.

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¡°Nothing seems to be safe,¡± Attfield said. ¡°The public doesn¡¯t always¡­understand the value of we might think of as a slightly niche degree. But I think it would be of concern to the public¡­that the potential to study science, public health and education is getting more limited.¡±

She said the suspensions affected pathway courses to postgraduate study, including ¡°stackable¡± courses, while the pausing of many international studies programmes would prevent students from learning foreign languages and gaining ¡°in-country¡± experience. She questioned the university¡¯s process for selecting the affected programmes. ¡°Nobody who teaches those courses has been consulted at all.¡±

The university conceded that ¡°closure¡± often followed temporary suspensions of courses. ¡°But in some cases courses may be reopened again for new intakes following assessment of criteria,¡± it said in a statement. ¡°Others may be suspended while they are redesigned to better meet student demand and need.¡±

Course cuts have been proposed at other universities that are reducing staffing levels to meet budgetary crises, including Macquarie University, the University of Wollongong and the Australian National University.

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com