Humanities enrolments falling mean fewer in retail
Critic begins recruiting writers from polytech
The Division of Humanities includes subjects such as law, english, media and politics, as well as the College of Education. Professor Brian Moloughney, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Humanities, says the subjects “develop transferable skills that are fundamental in a wide range of occupations.”
The most significant decline within the Division has been in the College of Education. This is due to the “scheduled conclusion of a major teacher education contract with the Malaysian government,” as well as a reduction in the number of domestic enrolments entering the teacher education programmes.
Moloughney says there was not a “significant decline” in Bachelor of Arts enrolments overall, although “it is too early to talk about 2014 enrolments at this time.”
Commerce enrolments were down marginally, while enrolments in the Divisions of Health Sciences and Sciences had increased. The number of students enrolled in the Division of Health Sciences surpassed humanities in 2012 and continues to rise. Moloughney does not appear concerned with the drop, saying “enrolments fluctuate from year to year for a variety of reasons.”
Despite the fall in numbers last year, the Division had a favourable variance of $1.646 million (3.4 per cent). This was mainly due to a donation to the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, which will be used to fund salaries beyond 2013 and the unbudgeted income received for continuing commercial contracts. Individual departments also made the effort to make savings, which contributed to the favourable variance.
Moloughney explains the importance of studying humanities, saying that they “develop informed and critical citizens” and “foster social justice and equality.” He says “they encourage us to think creatively, and to deal critically with subjective, complex and imperfect information. The humanities reveal how people have tried to make sense of the world in the past and teach empathy for others.”