IN THE aftermath of a confusing cancellation and resumption of Macleay College's Bachelor of Journalism course, a few students with recent experience as contributors for various publications based in the Western Plains have given their thoughts on the fiasco.

Students enrolled in the course - which was condensed to run in trimesters over a two year period - at the Sydney-based private college received shocking news just after 5pm on Friday 11 March in the form of an email announcing the journalism program had been cancelled due to "low enrolments" two weeks after 2022 classes had commenced.

"The email basically said students who had just started weren't going to be able to do any subjects altogether and gave them an option to withdraw before census," Macleay journalism student and Western Plains App intern Brielle Sykes said.

"If you were halfway through the course, it said you could do one more trimester and then transfer to a different journalism program (a Bachelor or of Digital Media)."

The announcement received backlash on social media from a collection of frustrated students and lecturers, who were only informed of the decision an hour before the students.

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) also revealed it was looking into the matter, having specific concerns about the timing and manner of how the decision was communicated to students.

While the news came in as shocking to many first-year students, Ms Sykes said she was confused but not surprised by the original announcement and was one of many changes which had occurred since the college had changed hands last year.

She said she was one of the lucky students who was only one trimester away from completing the degree in May, however she knew it would have a huge impact on the newer students.

"I really felt for the new students - a lot had moved to Sydney and just started the course - I at least had credits under my belt and was close to the end," she said.

"Putting myself in the shoes of an 18-year-old who had just finished school and was excited to start this new course, I think the way they'd gone about it wasn't in the best interest of the students."

For second-year student Claire Brownlie - who was an intern with the Coonamble Times and Western Plains App over two weeks in February - the whole situation has been very upsetting.

"The treatment of all the students made us feel like we're just a number - there has not been a lot of sympathy from the uni throughout this whole process," Ms Brownlie said.

Another student directly impacted by the announcement was Jordan Marsden who was just starting his second year and had recently enjoyed an internship at the Western Herald and 2WEB in Bourke in early February organised by journalism program Lead Sue Stephenson.

Mr Marsden said a lot of the students had finished class only minutes before the mass-email was sent out and had been taken aback by the announcement.

ABOVE: Jordan Marsden who recently interned at the Western Herald in Bourke is one of many Macleay students frustrated with how they have been treated over the past couple of weeks.

"They really didn't give much information in the email so we were all super confused - we didn't actually hear anything further until a few days ago," he said.

According to Mr Marsden, this email to students gave a different set of options for new and existing students, announced an extended census date to Friday 1 April - inviting any students who had initially withdrawn from the program to rescind and re-enrol if they chose - and stated classes would resume today (Thursday March 24).

Further inquiries by the students revealed the college had now in fact reversed the decision, claiming the course "has not been cancelled".

However, he said many students believed this clarification was only motivated by the investigation by TEQSA and came a lot later than it should have.

"It would have been a good email to send from the start but I think everyone's pretty done with it," he said.

"I'll be staying on to finish the trimester but I won't be finishing at Macleay - the lecturer from one of my units is gone, so there's no point."

Ms Brownlie, who has also decided to not return to Macleay, revealed at least three lecturers had departed the course with a communication received last week indicating the lecturer in charge of television would now be teaching all the classes, including things they had never taught before.

The email also revealed a new partnership with Western Sydney University (WSU) to facilitate transfers for students who no longer wished to remain at Macleay.

However both Ms Sykes and Mr Marsden - the latter of whom will be taking this opportunity - said this partnership had actually been set up previously by Ms Stephenson, who was made redundant after the termination of the course and has since been publicly critical of the college's actions.

"So many students were going for it so I think Macleay are just taking credit for it," Ms Sykes said.

"We heard nothing from Macleay about WSU transfer until then - it all sounds good if they'd done all this from the start, but it seems like they've only been forced to do things the right way because of TEQSA's involvement which is annoying and frustrating," Mr Marsden said.

"I still love journalism - we all still love it - and I'm keen to continue studying it. At the moment we're all still waiting to hear from WSU - they've been legends so far - while they map out our progression to see where we fall in their program."

Ms Brownlie has also applied to transfer to WSU, however was mindful that the university was currently unsure whether the displaced students would be able to start this semester and therefore may have to wait a few months to continue their studies.