In March 2017 the top floor of the Library is going to become Offices for TAFE Management. This library is the biggest TAFE library serving the information needs of around 28,000 students, educational staff and other support staff - fully one half of the total size of the 7 Institute colleges comprising Sydney TAFE Institute. The expanding need for office space for an increasingly centralised TAFE Head Office means that 37% of its floor space is to be taken over by the Managing Director’s head office functions. Having already taken over two floors of the old Applied Arts and Sciences Museum building (known as the Muse) apparently more office space is now required. Over the December/January period (after students have left the campus) all the books, shelving, furniture and other student facilities from Level 2 which can be squeezed within the remainder of the Library. There is a ‘promise’ of improved facilities but there is no budget allocation for the supposed improvements. The attractiveness of Ultimo TAFE as a place to study is sharply reduced. This affects current and all potential future users, making Ultimo TAFE less appealing as a place of study and less likely to attract future students. Due to the NSW State Governments “Smart and Skilled” reforms, TAFE is increasingly under pressure to become a commercial entity with less and less government funding. Students are increasingly asked to pay for courses at commercial rates and increasingly get fewer facilities, less support and fewer services for their increased financial burden. A corporatized, semi-privatised TAFE sees itself as needing only the marketable façade of student services such as libraries, counselling, career advice, disability support in order to compete on cost basis with scandal ridden for-profit private providers of VET.
