On May 10, the University of Queensland announced their plans to phase out their postgraduate programs in Museum Studies, both the Master of Museum Studies and Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies.
Professor Katharine Gelber, the Associate Dean of Academics at the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences informed students via letter, while Professor Lynda Cheshire, Head of School of Social Science, informed industry stakeholders. Cheshire’s letter stated these changes would come into effect next year, and “semester 2 will be the final intake for these programs at UQ”.
In that same letter, Cheshire explained this decision was due to “challenges relating to enrolments, staffing and market differentiation.” While the University had invested in the program, “student numbers remain low and have continued to decline, impacting the program’s ongoing viability”. This reasoning indicated the program no longer ran at a profit.
These changes led to wide industry concern as this leaves the state of Queensland without a tertiary course in this field. A petition started by Museums and Galleries Queensland expresses the consequences for Queensland’s GLAM (gallery, museum, archives and library) sector. Made in collaboration with the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA), the petition noted these decisions would endanger students, the museum sector, state reputation and lead to a loss of skill and opportunity.
Discontent rose quickly. A Reddit thread discloses students and community members’ severe disappointment in these “capitalist cookie-cutter style” decisions. One post reveals an undergraduate student tossing up their future plans “moving interstate will now be my only option”, with others concurring that they are “having to reassess my entire academic and career pathway”.
A UQ spokesperson told Honi , “After careful consideration, the University has notified students, staff and industry partners of proposed plans to phase out Museum Studies programs over the coming years.”
The spokesperson explained that “despite significant investment from UQ”, this decision is due to “low enrolments, staffing, and the availability of alternative study options”. The University stated it would continue its “partnerships and student placements with a range of state’s key arts and cultural organisations”. According to the spokesperson, these cuts have “no effect on undergraduate offerings”.
Rebekah Butler, Executive Director of Museums and Galleries Queensland, spoke to Honi about the dangers of phasing out Museum Studies. Contesting UQ’s claim that this would have no impact on undergraduate students, Butler stated that these cuts will force undergraduate students intending to pursue this postgraduate study, to move interstate or complete online degrees as tertiary qualifications “are often a prerequisite for gaining employment in our sector”.
As the lead of the peak body of public museum and gallery sector, Butler explained the industry’s main concern: “there will be no tertiary qualifications offered in this specialised field in Queensland, when there is clearly a need; and people may not return to Queensland after gaining their qualifications and establishing industry networks interstate, which will have long-term negative impacts on our workforce.”
Butler expanded, highlighting that phasing out Museum Studies was inconsistent with the Queensland State Government’s 10 year roadmap for the arts, “Creative Together 2020–2030”. Butler also appealed to the value of “experience, professional networkers and linkages” that these programs offer “our next generation of professional artists, arts and cultural workers and creative thinkers”.
Dr Lilian Cameron, Lecturer in Museum and Heritage Studies at Sydney College of the Arts, told Honi these changes “would be a blow for Brisbane, regional Queensland, and the broader country in terms of nurturing our future talent and the next generation of museum workers”. Cameron underscored that these postgraduate cuts would impact the representativeness of the workforce.
These types of decisions aren’t just being made in Queensland. Here at the University of Sydney, our Sydney College of the Arts has been facing and protesting consistent underfunding, restructuring and cutbacks for years.
Petition submissions to halt the cuts to UQ’s Museum Studies are due 6 June 2024. On June 7, the University of Queensland Vice Chancellor, Dean and Academic Board will meet and likely make a final decision.
