Protest Changes to FASS Degrees

To:  UTS Administration

ATTENTION COMMUNICATIONS STUDENTS:

Your degree is being hijacked.

Due to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences’ financial difficulties, all FASS students’ courses are being restricted, and students have not being advised that their electives are being limited.
From 2010, the number of classes to be run will be drastically cut. Class sizes will be increased, with 30 or more students in theory and non-lab production subjects, and 20 or more in lab classes. According to the Dean’s newsletter these class sizes are “optimal” and not a maximum: some classes could be bigger than 30 students.

Current first-year students in straight communications degrees will have to make their one sub-major choices now, rather than being able to choose two electives and from these pick sub-majors later in their degree.

Current second-year students are having extreme difficulty enrolling into higher-level 200 or 300 courses and finishing their majors to a professional multi-skilled standard.

Single degree students are being disadvantaged by being given access to enrolments a week later than combined degree students.

Combined degree students are not being fully informed of exchange requirements and could miss out.

You are probably having trouble enrolling online for next year’s subjects. If you are, you won’t be aware that you might have already been locked out of subject choices for the coming year.

Students are not being told that they:

- might not get the sub-majors or electives they want;
- might not be able to get multiple majors; and
- might not graduate as multi-skilled professionals.

The administration would prefer that we launch no official complaints, despite our restricted options. We have been told to email Katherine Gordon or Geoffrey Riordan with any complaints but PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW that their options are being cut.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION.

We want to take this petition to the the FASS Dean or the Vice-Chancellor by Friday 6th November, to give us back our options.

We want advanced-year students to be able to access subjects in the degrees they signed up and paid for. We want first-years to be informed that their subject choices now will impact their choice of sub-majors in later years.

We need to get the petition to the FASS Dean or the Vice-Chancellor before the holidays or else subject options for next year will be limited.

There has been a seriously lack of communication from the people administering our communications degrees, about changes which will affect us all.

For further comments or questions, please email yourutsdegree@live.co.uk.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Protest Changes to FASS Degrees Petition to UTS Administration was created by UTS students, staff, concerned parties and written by Alexandra Taylor and Jessica Tapp (alextaylor33@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.