500 signatures reached
To: UWA Faculty of Arts
Save GEND, EURO and MEMS Majors at UWA!
Dear UWA Faculty of the Arts,
The students of UWA urge you to reverse the planned cuts of the Gender Studies, European Studies, and Medieval & Early Modern Studies Majors at UWA. These majors have been consistently under attack for years because of 'financial constraints' that apparently make them too costly to run, yet there is little done to promote them to incoming students. These courses all have inherent value and are essential to keep if UWA wants to truly market itself as a global university that produces well-rounded graduates.
Why is this important?
As a student at UWA the proposed cuts to Arts Majors is a great cause of concern. I believe that my university should pride itself on creating graduates who have an understanding of global issues and have received a broad education, rather than being an institution that just focusses on what will earn them the most money in the short term. Decisions like this not only affect students currently enrolled in the Gender Studies, European Studies, and Medieval & Early Modern Studies Majors, but all students at UWA as I believe this decision greatly harms the integrity of the university.
No figures have been provided as to why these majors aren't financially viable, and it's unclear why it is them who have been continually under attack, rather than the university carrying out a proper Faculty-wide review.
Having done units from these majors in the past I can testify to their high quality and the passion of the lecturers and tutors. The fact that the majors haven't been well promoted in the past, especially as they have been continually under attack, is the root cause of any under-enrolment. If the university truly valued these areas of study the best solution would be to promote them more widely to incoming students, rather than cut them all together.
UWA has the only Medieval and Early Modern Studies and European Studies Majors in the state and Gender Studies is extremely important as a study of the current and past oppressions of women. These majors all have an important place at UWA, especially as a university that claims to produce 'global citizens'.
In the interests of preserving UWA's reputation as an institution that values a broad range of areas and puts the education of its students as its number one priority I urge the Faculty of Arts to reverse its decision.