As part of the recently released Change Proposal, UTS has revealed plans to merge the Faculty of Law with the Faculty of Business and Trans-Disciplinary School as part of its Operational Sustainability Initiative.
This is despite the OSI Discussion Paper (December 2024) and Feedback and Response Paper (March 2025) noting that “faculty mergers would not deliver significant savings” with KPMG reporting ongoing savings of at most $4M possible from “changes to Academic structures”.
The Faculty of Law was established 49 years ago and its staff and students have built a strong reputation as one of Australia’s best teaching and research law faculties. From simple beginnings, the faculty is now ranked as the 7th best place to study in Law in Australia according to 2025 QS rankings.
The NTEU has conducted a survey of all Law staff. 96% of staff that responded oppose the devolution of the Law Faculty into a school as part of the proposed mega-Faculty.
Quotes attributable to NTEU UTS Branch President Dr Sarah Attfield:
“The proposal to merge these faculties comes as a real shock to staff. If the VC was considering doing this, he should have made that evident long before now, and his failure to do so draws into question whether consultation so far has been genuine.”
“A recent merger of the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences has not been handled well. Months since this unpopular merger was actioned, staff in the new faculty are still waiting to learn what the purpose and vision of the Faculty will be. This does not bode well for any future proposed mergers.”
