Anger, concern at Federation University Bachelor of Arts cut

And among Forbes top 10 richest (self made) people almost all have a degree in arts and/or science.

Current and former arts students of Federation University are concerned the importance of the generalist degree has been forgotten after the university made the shock decision to axe its Bachelor of Arts degree from next year due to low enrolments.

They say a Bachelor of Arts helps promote curiosity, creativity, exploration of social issues, fosters critical thinking skills and helps make society a better place.

The move leaves Federation University as possibly the only Victorian university not offering a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Paul Miller, who was the first to graduate with a PhD from the then Ballarat University's new School of Humanities in 2000, acknowledged the university's decision was a financial one but feared for local students who wanted to study arts near home.

"A Bachelor of Arts is all about creativity and where ideas are formed. It's thinking about social issues and trying to make society a better place," he said.

A current Federation University PhD student, who graduated from the Bachelor of Arts course in 2019, said he had noticed the capacity of the course reducing over the past few years.

"I noticed units start to disappear, the course change and things happen, but they were never replaced," he said.

"There has been a very very gradual cut of the arts course and this is the final rip of the Bandaid."

He said while current Bachelor of Arts students were semi-optimistic they could finish their studies or swap in to other courses, he was concerned fewer people were wanting to study a Bachelor of Arts.

"I think there's long term ramifications coming from this. General degrees are what allow people to really navigate different jobs ... but moving in to the hyper-specific model of degrees leads to only two or three specific jobs."

He was also concerned the drop in students studying the Bachelor of Arts could in part be due to the pandemic and those wishing to join the course next year or later on would miss out.

"I'm fortunate I will be able to finish my PhD as I only have one unit this semester remaining.

"I just think cutting the Bachelor of Arts is a weird manoeuvre. Western universities started with the arts ... and removing that removes the essence out of universities, leaving them essentially as a degree factory."

In announcing the cut of the arts degree, Federation University acting vice-chancellor Professor Wendy Cross said the COVID pandemic had caused a significant drop in international enrolments as well as a drop in domestic student enrolments which had impacted on the university's finances.

She said student commencements have fallen from 83 in 2018 to just 27 in 2022.

Federation University's National Tertiary Education Union branch president Mathew Abbott feared other smaller regional universities could follow suit and axe their Bachelor of Arts degrees.

IN OTHER NEWS:

He said lecturers involved in the Bachelor of Arts were often also teaching hundreds of students in other degree programs, such as literature academics teaching students studying education.

"I don't think it would take much in terms of what it would cost to reinvest and put this course back on an upward trajectory," he said.

Mr Abbott believed part of the low enrolments were related to students putting off study during COVID until universities resumed face to face teaching.

"We are coming out of unprecedented period with student enrolments up in some areas and down in others. We were hopeful, until the uni did this, that in fact we would see more come in next year as we move past what has been quite an unusual period."