[Greens-Media] Victoria University cuts "a blow to education in the west" - Hartland

[Elizabeth.Ingham at parliament.vic.gov.au]

Greens MLC Colleen Hartland has described the staff and course cuts at 
Victoria University as "a blow to education in the west".  She will attend 
a National Tertiary Union meeting with staff at VU on Tuesday 21 October 
at 1pm.

"I am appalled that Victoria University would consider sacking nearly a 
quarter of their academic staff, and getting rid of some of their 
courses," said Ms Hartland. 

"Victoria University is the biggest provider for education in the western 
suburbs, and it would be terrible to limit choices and availability."

"They have a lot of adult students and newly arrived ESL students."

"I was one of those adult students, who was given a second chance at 
education by Victoria University when I was 40 years old.  I did the 
community development course."

"At the time I did the VU course I was a home care worker, and afterwards 
I got a much better job with Western Region Health Centre – it paid 
double.  Mature aged education is a way out of poverty for women."

"My course was full of mature aged students who had missed out on earlier 
formal education."

"All this at a time when Victoria University is planning to spend millions 
on a facility at Whitten Oval that they will never own."


*************************

Liz Ingham
Office of Colleen Hartland MLC
Western Metropolitan Region

A: 75 Victoria Street, Seddon 3011
P: 9689 6373
M: 0409 333 595
F: 9689 6227
E: elizabeth.ingham at parliament.vic.gov.au
W: www.electedgreensvictoria.org.au

Parliament of Victoria Notice: 

The information contained in this email  including any attachments, may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Any unauthorised disclosure, copying or dissemination of all or part of this email, including any attachments, is not permitted. This email, including any attachments, should be dealt with in accordance with copyright and  privacy legislation. Except where otherwise stated, views expressed are those of the individual sender.