Enrolment fall hits universities

An 8 per cent fall in university applications in Western Australia for 2006 entry had an immediate impact on staff numbers at Edith Cowan University.

Due to the fall-off in enrolments, this year ECU gave up about 800 full-time student places, worth $6 million in Commonwealth grants. In all, 149 employees were made redundant, a 9 per cent drop since last year.

“There is no hard data showing that, but we lost student applications because of the booming economy and ECU targets a significant proportion of people who don’t have a privileged postcode and therefore more subject to be hesitant to apply,” ECU vice-chancellor and president, Professor Kerry Cox, told WA Business News.

Curtin University also cut staff numbers, by 2 per cent.

Meanwhile, Murdoch University staff numbers grew by 10 per cent, UWA 7.5 per cent and University of Notre Dame 3 per cent.

Of all WA universities, only UWA had increase in student applications, up 3 per cent in 2006.