Erin Milne, QUT Guild Education Officer
On 14 February 2025, the Brisbane Times published an article revealing that QUT has paused its undergraduate dance intake to review the course. The review has now been expanded to include all Performing Arts courses. The point of this review is likely to justify serious attacks on QUT students’ right to study specialised degrees, on the basis that they are not profitable or high quality enough for QUT to continue offering them.
QUT is the only public university in Queensland to offer specialised degrees in subjects like Dance and Technical Production, a degree that has already been cut down to a minor this year. The review is also an attack on staff. The lecturers and tutors who teach the courses and maintain the state-of-the-art facilities are also now at risk of being made redundant.
QUT has been slowly cutting down Performing Arts courses since 2021 when they cut the Dance Performance degree and collapsed three separate faculties into one. During the pandemic, up to 1,500 staff lost their jobs through redundancies or not having their contracts renewed on the basis of lost profits. This is total crap. QUT recorded a $139.9 million operating surplus in 2021, $17.85 million of which came from “Employee Related Expenses decreasing” AKA staff cuts and wage freezes.
The threat being posed to the Performing Arts degrees is a warning sign for students’ future education at QUT. Cuts to any degree set the precedent for more cuts in other faculties down the line.
As a socialist, I think university education should be free, publicly owned and funded, and run for the benefit of students, not for Vice-Chancellors and administrations to make millions of dollars. University courses should be offered for the purpose of advancing knowledge and research. Students aren’t robots, ready to be rolled out to meet the whims of capitalist business owners. No student should have their options restricted by profit or the job market.
I am hosting a forum on Wednesday 12 March at 1PM at Gardens Point to discuss the attacks, where they come from, and how students and staff can stand up against the corporate university. I encourage students to follow the Education Office Instagram page, @qutguildeducation, for updates to the campaign and to get involved!
