Possible Consequences of Reduced Student Numbers for CSE Teaching

• Growth in academic staff numbers is at an end for now - reduction in staff numbers by attrition or retrenchment is likely.

  If enrolments stabilise at the current level (40% below that of two years ago), then CSE's student-related income will ultimately be 40% lower than last year's income. As far as I can see, this means that, in 3 years' time, when the current bulge of students has graduated, we will only be able to afford about 60% of the current numbers of staff. In terms of academic staff (my primary area of concern in terms of allocating duties) this would mean about 20 fewer lecturers level B and above, and about 10 fewer associate lecturers.

  It is not clear to me that we will be able to shed that many jobs by attrition even over a 3 year time frame.

  We are doing what we can to promote CSE to prospective students, but there is no guarantee that this will be successful enough. The option of reducing UAIs cutoffs for our programs remains.

• Introduction of new courses will now require a decision on which other course will not be offered (or only offered in one session, if currently offered in both, or in alternate years).

• Courses with small enrolments (relative to other courses at a similar level) will now become a luxury. It may be necessary in some cases to offer a number of specialist courses but cancel those that do not attract enough students.

• In the short term, it will probably be necessary to cancel several small (<10 students) second session electives to cover our other commitments in second session of 2003.

• Staff offering cancelled courses would of course be welcome to teach these courses outside of (i.e. in addition to) their allocated teaching load. (Staff have done this in the past, in order to, for example, attract good PhD students.)

• If staff offering small specialist courses become unavailable, those courses are unlikely to continue.

• As course enrolments fall below, say, 100 students, support such as course admins may be withdrawn. As associate lecturers almost all leave when they complete their PhD, budget reduction is possible in this area.

  There is a tension between this rule of thumb and the School's plan to provide extra admin support to staff with NICTA secondments.

• It may be necessary to reduce offerings (particularly repeat offerings) even in the absence of new course proposals, as staff numbers reduce. This will be facilitated by reducing student numbers in the courses that we currently run in both sessions. At level 3 and above, the relevant courses are:

  Course(s)	02s1	02s2	03s1	03s2	Remarks
  COMP3111/9008	207	285	169	219
  COMP3121/9101	No	253	129	157
  COMP3221/9221	133	184	111	142
  COMP3231/9201	299	151	292	108
  COMP3311	No	439	306	208
  COMP3331/9331	653	319	478	189
  COMP4411	19	8	19	5
  COMP9020	32	58	33	9	Core+intro for MCompSc More to come in s2 PG enrolments
  COMP9021	159	116	87	4	Core+intro for MCompSc More to come in s2 PG enrolments
  COMP9022	75	58	44	9	Core+intro for MCompSc More to come in s2 PG enrolments
  COMP9024	132	125	45	71	Core+intro for MCompSc
  COMP9311	173	160	93	24	Core+intro for MInfSc More to come in s2 PG enrolments
  COMP9315	164	No	222	3	Just offered for 03s2
  COMP9316	216	244	288	176
  COMP9332	No	333	142	124	Having it both sessions helps with MInfSc-internetworking

2003 enrolment numbers correct on about 30 May 2003.

Notes by: Bill Wilson

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