La Trobe cuts gender studies

La Trobe cuts gender studies

La Trobe University is proposing to cut its gender and sexuality studies courses from next year due due to financial shortfalls in the humanities department.

The Gender, Sexuality and Diversity major from the Bachelor of Arts program will be discontinued under the proposal. Current students will not be affected by the change.

The Bachelor of Arts will shrink from 29 majors to just 13, including six new dual majors, under the plan

The proposal said the faculty had not met its expected student load target which had put pressure on the faculty’s financial position.

The humanities faculty posted a $4.36 million loss against the university’s 2012 budget which could blow out to over $7 million by the end of next year.

The university will canvass staff about the proposed changes until the end of July.

Gender studies is offered at Melbourne, Monash and Victoria universities.

UPDATE 12/07/2012: The proposal to cut the Gender, Sexuality and Diversity studies major course was due to a shortfall in expected revenue in the Humanities Faculty, not a decline in enrolments as said previously in the story. The proposal said part of the rationale behind the move was that the faculty had “consistently been unable to meet its student load target”.

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One response to “La Trobe cuts gender studies”

  1. The proposal to cut Gender Sexuality and Diversity Studies is NOT due to falling enrolments; our numbers have been steadily growing, servicing over 450 students per year. The proposal comes because there is a SHORTFALL, not deficit in projected revenue. No other university offers a major like this–with sexuality in its title–in Australia, to my knowledge. Melbourne had axed uts Gender Studies major a few years ago, and is now planning to reintroduce it. I would appreciate it if you corrected this story.
    Sincerely, Carol D’Cruz

    Ed: Thanks, Carol. We’ve amended the story for clarification.