TAFE students aren’t the only ones losing out as a result of hiked TAFE fees – teachers are falling victim to redundancies as student enrolments dwindle.

NMIT land management and conservation teacher Sebastian Buckingham was recently made redundant. "Due to the State Government's Skill Reform, enrolments across the institute and in particular this department are well down," agriculture and animal science department head Phil Tripp is said to have told land management students. (Whittlesea Leader)

The Brumby Government's controversial reforms have dramatically ramped up fees, removed the rights to concessions for thousands of low-income students and introduced HECS-style loans.

"It's a sad day for TAFE," said AEU TAFE vice president Jo Fogarty. "The AEU feared from the beginning that redundancies would be the outcome of the TAFE changes — and now it's becoming a reality."

Regional TAFEs are the hardest hit. The University of Ballarat TAFE has already commenced the redundancy process, and Holmesglen, Bendigo, Box Hill, South West and Northern TAFEs are all showing concern about how much longer they can avoid the same fate.