Renowned RMIT TAFE writing program dead

How shall we praise the magnificence of the dead?

So start the lines of Conrad Aiken's great poem, Telestai. Most of you may not know about the RMIT Professional Writing and Editing (PWE) program in Carlton, Melbourne but it too is dead.

It was one of the most highly regarded of all TAFE programs in Victoria and one of the best writing programs in Australia. It doesn't matter if you didn't know the program, you will recognise the pathology of its downfall. It's a disease that infects many modern organisations.

PWE was a crucial hub in the intellectual and cultural life of Carlton, Fitzroy and North Melbourne. It formed a nexus between multimedia publishers, desktop publishers, web designers, editors and writers. Its students created exciting new art. Many were aged in there 30s and 40s. About 70 per cent already had degrees.

'Outrageous', you may say. 'They should be paying top dollar!' All students, no matter how rich or poor paid the same. The program had grown organically since the late 1980s and made about $200,000 per year.

The program was killed by ridiculous 'one size fits all' thinking by the former Brumby Government. It leveled the TAFE system in Victoria as fully as any battalion of tanks. It deregulated TAFE courses and opened up fees to market forces. This meant massive fee hikes of more than 500 per cent in some cases.

When I left as director of the RMIT Creative Writing programs in 2004, PWE charged $500 a year or less if you were on the dole or disability pension. Since then, its fees have rocketed 1000 per cent. The tailings of the program will be offered as an associate degree this year charging $5648 a year in fees.

Much of my work at RMIT (which spanned from 1991-2004 – as well as working for Federal and Victorian politicians) was fighting to keep the program within the price range of its traditional market. Even back then people wanted to disband PWE, take it over, internationalise it or dumb down its curriculum.

The drive to commercialise academic programs is almost over whelming. Clearly, programs have to be profitable but there is no need to crush the soul out of them. A few years ago I wrote an article in The Australian on the commodification of creativity not knowing that the program I used to run was itself under threat.

The PWE staff used to brag about the number of novels published but my eye was always on making sure students got jobs. About three quarters of the students earned less than $16,000 gross per year. PWE was one rung up on the ladder of opportunity.

I had students who were heroin addicts, schizophrenics, homeless kids, sex addicts, depressives, alcoholics, princesses, know-it-alls, psychiatrists, doctors, kids who had done jail time, house wives, bullshit artists – you name it, they rolled up to study at RMIT PWE in Carlton. Many earned that brief title 'writer'.

The students not only got published, they got jobs as magazine writers, editors, copywriters, journalists, travel writers, web builders and much more. For those of you who don't know the joy of getting paid for writing, it makes it worth getting up in the morning. This was cultural capital at work. Its value goes beyond the bottomline.

I built a Masters of Creative Writing (Research) and expanded the full fee short course programs. But building programs with an eye to industry needs fails hopelessly when confronted by ignorance and fiscal vandalism.

It takes courage to stand up and say, "No further!" That is what the staff should have said. It's like standing up to the school bully after school. It takes guts.

I remember in my last few weeks of teaching at RMIT, I asked a couple of lecturers for written references but they shied away, fearful of what the new head of school might do. I'd worked with them for seven years. You just don't know how people are going to react when fear stalks the room. The path of least resistance is a slippery slope.

But consider the cost of doing nothing. Where once students paid $500.00 to study full time, they will now pay, with tuition fees, almost $6000 per year. Remember, this was a TAFE program. Squealer from Animal Farm always spoke of change as a 'readjustment', never as a 'reduction'. You pay more and get less. Know the feeling?

Higher education students now owe the Gillard Government about $20 billion in university loans and HECS fees. The average HECS debt is $14,000 per student. A few more will now contribute that that debt.

I now work in organisational demographics and population studies and while there will be a 'rush' to get a university place, this will not last. The Gillard Government's policy to increase participation by 40 per cent in the 25-34 age group is admirable, but it is destined to failure.

From about 2020 there be less students enrolling in university (even with the Government's student enrolment push), as we simply don't have the birth numbers to sustain mass-market domestic entry of 40 per cent. There will be a large cohort of older students in their 50s and 60s looking to change careers.

Many will already have degrees. Some might undertake Masters degrees but others will want to study a variety of subjects such as short story writing, screenwriting, playwriting, desktop publishing, non-fiction writing and editing. These were PWE subjects.

There are threats that the Baillieu government will cut $230 million in TAFE subsidies over the next four years. This means staff cuts, campus closures and a fall in the number of courses available.

Former ALP Skills Minister Jacinta Allan, who was the progenitor of this debacle, will go down in history as the ALP member who killed TAFE in Victoria. The Victorian Minster for Higher Education and Skills, Peter Hall, is the man charged with digging the grave.

Too often we live with the little compromises we make. We form a committee when we should act. We take something good, water it down or disband it, and then pine when it's gone. It's far better to fight and in fighting, find out what one stands for rather than settling for a pale, broken thing.