Transforming Swinburne

Date posted: 09 July 2012

Swinburne University of Technology's Vice-Chancellor Professor Linda Kristjanson today announced a transformation of the university to deliver on its vision to be a leader in science, technology and innovation.

"The changes we are announcing today are designed to support our vision for Swinburne in 2020," Professor Kristjanson said.

"Our future is as Australia's leading university in science, technology and innovation," she said.

"We are proud to be a university that is actively engaged with industry, producing world-class research and putting students at the heart of everything we do."

Professor Kristjanson said higher education course offerings at Swinburne will be expanded from next year in response to student demand.

This will position Swinburne for future growth and ensure it remains competitive and strong.

New bachelor degrees, as well as double degrees, will be on offer as part of Swinburne's higher education portfolio in 2013.

New degrees would include a Bachelor of Health Sciences with specialisations available in sports science, nutrition and psychology. New majors in disciplines such as forensic science will also be available.

Professor Kristjanson said the university was also pursuing the relocation of the Faculty of Design from Prahran to Swinburne's Hawthorn campus.

"Geography is holding us back from achieving better connections between design and our other areas of teaching and research strength," Professor Kristjanson said.

"Moving our Faculty of Design to Hawthorn will improve educational opportunities for our students and harness greater opportunities for industry-focused research collaboration."

Consistent with Swinburne's long-term vision, the TAFE course portfolio for 2013 has been reshaped to better align with Swinburne's focus for the future.

Programs in areas such as hospitality, leisure, recreation and tourism will no longer be offered. Courses that are no longer viable, or have low student demand, will also be discontinued.

As a consequence of the reshaping of its TAFE course profile, Swinburne will offer up to 240 voluntary redundancies for TAFE teaching staff and general staff across the university.

Fewer TAFE courses that can be viably offered, coupled with a decline in demand for higher education at Lilydale, means it will no longer be sustainable to continue to offer courses at Lilydale from 1 July 2013.

"Our need to refocus what we do means that we have needed to make difficult decisions across the board," Professor Kristjanson said.

"Ceasing operations at Lilydale is certainly the hardest decision of all."

Students will receive information to provide them with certainty around their studies and fees for the remainder of 2012 and for 2013.

A range of advice and support services is available to Swinburne staff and students to assist them during the period of change.

"We have transformed ourselves since our very beginnings one hundred years ago as a local provider of technical education to a world ranked university," Professor Kristjanson said.

"I am confident that with these changes, we will transform ourselves again and that the Swinburne of the future will be even stronger than it is today."

sources - Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus