Restrictions on enrolments and measures to "redirect" students to other courses will be a major feature of the development of the Faculty of Commerce and Administration over the next few years.

This bad news for Commerce students emerges from a five page paper, signed by the Faculty's Dean Professor Fogelberg, which sets out the Faculty's plans for the 1980—85 Quinquennium.

The "quinquennium" is the official name for the five-yearly period on which universities are financed. 1978 is the year in which the universities are preparing detailed submissions setting out their plans and requests for the next quinquennium.

Once completed, the universities submissions go to the University Grants Committee, the official body which advises the Government on university policy.

Little Room for Expansion

It is already being widely predicted that the quinquennuim will be the most difficult the universities have faced for years.

With the downturn in the economy and Government policy of keeping a tight rein on public expenditure, it is becoming ominously clear that there will be little room for expansion for the universities in the 1980—85 period.

It is equally clear that if most academics get their way in internal university battles over what goes into the submissions to the UGC, students will bear the brunt of any reductions in university spending.

For example, student welfare services could be reduced to pay for the introduction of new postgraduate courses or specialist staff and equipment which are being demanded by some academic lobbies within the university.

No Alternative

The Commerce Faculty has experienced a steady expansion in student numbers over the past few years which has been higher than for the university as a whole. Its student/ staff ratio is much higher than the university average — a situation which both staff and students are finding intolerable.

The faculty's quinquennial submissions sum the problem op this way: "Large 200 - and 300 - level courses cannot be permitted to continue and large enrolments at the 100-level must be handled in a more acceptable manner than at present."

It is obvious that the Commerce Faculty will need more staff and greater resources if enrolment restrictions on undergraduate B.C.A. degree courses are going to be avoided. But if its quinquennial submissions are an accurate guide to the official thinking of the Faculty, then it is quite clear that the Faculty is prepared to accept enrolment restrictions for B.C.A. courses or measures to "redirect" students to other degrees. The submissions state:

"Given the unliklihood of sufficiently large increases in staff resources, the Faculty sees no alternative but to seek improvement through reducing student numbers.

A Matter of Priorities

The Faculty's submissions show that the the job of meeting student demand for B.C.A. courses will take a lower priority in the Commerce Faculty's development over the next quinquennium compared to other of its goals.

The submissions place great emphasis on introducing new postgraduate courses (A Master of Management degree which would be a "private sector" equivalent of the existing Master of Public Policy), expanding existing postgraduate courses, expanding Faculty activities in "management development programmes", and enlarging the volume of research undertaken within the Faculty.

In a revealing statement the submissions argue: "In the light of the overall pattern of national development it is clear that the Faculty's future role is going to be more important. Even greater attention is going to be devoted to: economic issues, the role of government, and problems of business management and public sector administration."

The question Commerce students need to ask Professor Fogelburg and his colleagues is this: if "greater attention" is going to be devoted to these things, will less attention be devoted to the task of teaching the B.C.A. degree to the large number of present and future university students who want to complete this basic commerce qualification?

Kelburn Parade Correspondent