Uni axe shock

By KATH GANNAWAY
SWINBURNE Lilydale Campus will close in July next year.
The initial shockwaves that came with vice-chancellor Linda Kristjanson’s axe-blow announcement on Friday afternoon descended into a fog of anger, frustration, confusion and devastation over the weekend as the impact on so many lives sunk in.
The closure will cost 240 jobs across the Swinburne network and affect both TAFE and higher education courses offered at Lilydale.
Among the courses to go are hospitality, recreation, and tourism and leisure – a move industry leaders say will have a huge impact on the Yarra Ranges tourism industry.
Professor Kristjanson said closing Lilydale was a hard decision, but the right one for the organisation.
She said the changes were about turning Swinburne into a leading university for science, technology and innovation, but also said the recent State Government $290 million TAFE funding cuts would impact Swinburne by about $35 million next year.
Staff who contacted the Mail over the weekend said talk of students being moved to Croydon or Wantirna ignored the reality that many students from the Dandenongs and Yarra Valley didn’t have transport, and that those campuses were “bursting at the seams”.
“All that will lead to is students opting out of courses, further course cuts, and further job losses,” one staff member said.
Yarra Ranges Mayor Graham Warren said Yarra Ranges Council would do whatever it could to turn the decision around.
“All the council is dismayed and outraged at the decision and we will be looking to do whatever we can to change it, or to keep it going in some other way as an education facility for this region,” he said on Sunday.