The Curtin Student Guild has reaffirmed its firm opposition to merging Curtin University, the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Murdoch University, following the State Government's decision to progress a formal business case examining the proposal.
The Guild believes a merger would be bad for students, bad for education and bad for Western Australia.
A three-way merger could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, threaten jobs, reduce student choice and cause years of disruption, without guaranteeing better educational outcomes.
South Australia's recent university merger has already demonstrated the significant costs and disruption these exercises can cause, including enrolment difficulties, course changes and uncertainty for students.
The economic case for merging WA's universities also relies heavily on assumptions about improved institutional performance, rather than evidence that combining universities would necessarily deliver better outcomes.
Student choice is essential to educational equity
Curtin, UWA and Murdoch serve different communities, offer distinct courses and entry pathways, and provide students with different approaches to teaching and learning.
These differences matter. Students have diverse financial, geographic, educational and personal circumstances, and having different institutions and study options helps make higher education accessible to people from all backgrounds.
Reducing that diversity risks making university less accessible, particularly for students already facing barriers to participation.
The Government should be removing barriers to education, not removing students' choices.
Invest in students, not university restructuring
The biggest barriers to higher education are the cost of studying, housing and living, alongside inadequate student support.
Students need affordable education, financial security, accessible pathways and the support to succeed. None of these outcomes requires three universities to become one.
The Guild believes public money should be invested directly in addressing these barriers, rather than spent on an expensive and disruptive institutional restructure.
We also welcome Curtin University's strong public opposition to a forced merger.
What does this mean for students?
Nothing is changing for students right now.
The Government is preparing a business case, not implementing a merger. Classes, assessments, enrolments and degrees continue as normal.
The Guild is continuing to analyse the Government's reports and their implications for students, staff and the future of higher education in WA. We will have more to say as this work progresses.
The Guild will fight this proposal
The Government's decision to progress a business case does not make a merger inevitable. The Government can choose not to proceed, and it should not.
The Curtin Student Guild will continue working alongside the Murdoch Student Guild through our Stop the Uni Merger campaign to oppose this proposal and advocate for accessible, affordable public higher education.
We will fight this merger every step of the way to defend students and accessible public education in WA.
Students are encouraged to sign up to the campaign at stoptheunimerger.au to get involved and stay informed.
We'll have more updates and opportunities for students to take action soon.