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Across the country, Australian universities are reassessing their course offerings, with arts and humanities programs frequently among those targeted for restructuring or closure. The future of creative education is being reshaped amid broader financial pressures and long-term policy changes, and it’s creating several crisis points. Qualified young professionals are disappearing from regional areas, high school students are disincentivised to prepare for creative tertiary study and university staff are burned out from fighting for a system that is hostile towards them.
Last month, QUT became one of the largest universities to announce a major review of its creative arts courses. The result was a cut to the university’s dance major and a significant reshaping of some of its creative degrees. The QUT announcement joins a growing list of institutions making similar changes to creative and humanities education.
While the long list of universities that cut entire programs in the shadow of COVID-19 has slowed down its expansions, many institutions have quietly announced systematic reductions and cuts that threaten the stability of humanities and arts education.
Arts and humanities education faces restructures, redundancies
Several universities have initiated large-scale restructures affecting arts faculties in the past two years. Macquarie University is cutting 13 of its 24 arts majors, including full degree programs in music, history and planning. The university has also overhauled first-year curricula, removing electives in favour of core units, citing financial sustainability and a $40 million to $60 million annual savings goal. However, reports suggest teaching remains profitable, and revenue may be redirected to offset non-teaching debt, including campus infrastructure projects.
At the University of Canberra, 13 creative arts and communication degrees – including journalism, sport media and industrial design – are being phased out or consolidated* (see below for a response from the University). The University has also announced 52 academic job cuts. Management has attributed the changes to a 32% decline in student load within the Faculty of Arts and Design between 2019 and 2024.
Other universities undergoing similar transitions include:
- Western Sydney University is planning to reduce 12 schools into three faculties and forecasting up to 400 job losses.
- University of Tasmania is cutting 13 arts and humanities positions and ceasing some programs such as dedicated tourism courses.
- University of Wollongong is reducing faculties and schools, with up to 185 full-time equivalent roles at risk.
- At the Australian National University, job cuts are continuing as part of the ‘Renew ANU’ plan, aimed at reducing staffing costs by $100 million by 2026.
Government policy failure undermines arts and humanities education
Many institutions cite structural deficits, declining domestic enrolments and a volatile international student market as key pressures. But longer-term trends also point to the role of national higher education policy.
The Morrison Government introduced the 2020 Job-Ready Graduates (JRG) package. It introduced differential student fees, increasing the cost of humanities and communications degrees by up to 117%. For example, the cost of a social studies or communications degree rose from $6684 to approximately $16,992 per year. The policy aimed to steer students into priority sectors, but research suggests it largely failed to shift student behaviour.
The Universities Accord Final Report, released in early 2024, acknowledged these issues. It recommended scrapping the JRG package and proposed a model based on projected lifetime earnings. The report concluded that JRG had “failed to meet its objectives” and called for urgent reform. While welcomed by many, the Accord is a long-term strategy. The Federal Minister for Education Jason Clare has described it as “a plan for the next decade,” leaving short-term uncertainty for arts faculties and students.
The impact on access and equity for arts and humanities
The failure of the JRG package and its impact on arts and humanities courses has also likely impacted access and equity. Women and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds disproportionately pursue creative and humanities degrees. According to recent data, 64% of creative arts graduates and 69% of society and culture graduates in 2023 were women.
Fee increases and course reductions may have a compounded impact on these groups. Regional students also face added barriers, with smaller campuses often bearing the brunt of cuts. The Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Creative Arts (DDCA) has expressed concern that university changes may reduce higher education access for First Nations and regional students, for whom arts degrees have historically served as a vital entry point.
The sector responds to urgent arts and humanities crisis
Union representatives and advocacy groups have reacted to the continued cuts with a mix of frustration and caution. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has raised concerns about the scale of job losses and the rationale behind some institutional decisions, including whether projected deficits are being overstated.
Arts organisations such as Creative Australia and Theatre Network Australia have also highlighted the risk to the cultural workforce pipeline. A 2025 report from Creative Australia found that artists face lower-than-average incomes and high job insecurity, with university courses often acting as key development platforms for creative skills and networks.
Meanwhile, the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) has documented at least 40 discontinued creative arts degrees since 2018. It has called for a national, bipartisan inquiry into the future of arts education. Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke has not responded to the request.
The future of arts and humanities education
Australia’s cultural and creative industries contribute more than $21 billion to the national economy. Yet the education pathways that support this sector are contracting. While recent policies such as ‘Revive’: A National Cultural Policy have acknowledged the importance of creative work, funding and implementation of higher education reform remain limited in the short term.
International examples show that alternative models are possible. In Finland, the arts are embedded throughout the curriculum; in Germany, universities are receiving targeted investment for digital arts infrastructure. Closer to home, however, the arts education sector is at a crossroads.
As course offerings diminish and costs rise, institutions, governments and communities will need to decide whether – and how – to support the next generation of creative professionals.
This article was updated at 12.43pm on Tuesday 3 June following the response below from the University of Canberra:
- For the record, the only course that the University of Canberra’s Faculty of Arts and Design will be closing is the Landscape Architecture degree.
- The University is not closing any of the degrees mentioned above, instead we are changing the structure of the degree to align it with the rest of the sector. In addition, these changes were not because of the most recent financial decisions taken by the University, but rather a move to align our courses in several areas with standard offerings elsewhere.
- In future, students will be able to apply for a Bachelor of Design, a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Communication and Media, with the listed focus areas available as specialisations. All study areas will continue, only the degree structure has changed to provide more flexibility to students seeking to pursue these degrees. Students will still be able to graduate with the same degree awards as currently offered, such as Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design) and there are no changes proposed to curriculum.
