The Wire

Last week Sydney University announced it’s plan to stop taking new nursing graduates from next year. Instead, new students would enrol with UTS or the Australian Catholic University. This move has been encouraged by the Federal Government’s review of tertiary education whose aim is a trade off of funding in return for rationalising the number of uni’s offering the same courses. Dr Brendan Nelson so far supports the proposal, saying it falls in line with reform goals – but not everyone agrees. Labor MP Tanya Plibersek has written to Brendan Nelson urging him to protect the nursing faculty, and NSW Health Minister Morris Iemma says the Federal government should increase the number of nursing degrees on offer. He says we’ll be facing a shortage of 40,000 nurses by 2010 unless graduates increase by 120 percent! Sydney University nursing students and staff held a proteston Friday. Danny Faddoul is an organiser with the Community and Public Sector Union (or PSU), which covers general staff at Sydney University including the Faculty of Nursing. Cinnamon Nippard spoke to Danny Faddoul and Labor MP Tanya Plibersek.