Policy & ReformTop Stories
No appeasement for UNSW Cancel Trimesters campaign
Ire and disgruntlement have dogged UNSW’s decision to switch from the semester to trimester calendar, ever since it was announced in late 2016. Even as the new structure was rolled out at the beginning of the year, the Cancel Trimesters campaign – established by the UNSW Student Representative Council (SRC) Education Office – has continued to push for an overhaul.
Please login below to view content or subscribe now.
Unfortunately management such as DVCs dont have great track records for absorbing anything they purportedly listen to… and the national and staff interests dont often coincide with their percieved institutional interests. I can just imagine the horrendous staffing load in preparing, teaching and admin a trimester creates – its bad enough with two semesters but eating up the necessary recovery time at other times of the year is just sheer cruelty to staff.
“Change management” (or lack thereof) has become one of the buzz words of management consultants. While good practices are needed in implementing new initiatives, all of this just becomes a mantra when the initiatives are poorly thought through and are unlikely to work well on the ground. Skills in these areas also tend to be thinner on the ground in higher education than many other workplaces.
Given this, who should really be surprised by these outcomes at UNSW!