Deep cuts are being made across La Trobe University as part of a major restructure dubbed by vice-chancellor John Dewar as the largest reforms in the university's history. Economics is one of the worst-hit areas, with the Bachelor of Economics being abolished and staff to be cut from 28 to 11 as the school of economics is subsumed by the La Trobe business school. The university says abolishing the economics degree is justified by a long-term decline in enrolments, but students and academics say the cuts will also affect subject diversity in a range of courses, including James' PPE degree. The university website lists numerous economics subjects as unavailable in 2015, with total offerings falling from 36 in 2013 to 17 in 2015. Sources say some of the remaining subjects may also disappear as the last bachelor of economics students are 'taught out', but it remains unclear what will remain. PPE courses are a breeding ground for political leaders worldwide, including Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and David Cameron. Likewise, Ottoway is hopeful of a political career through a policy think-tank or the Department of Treasury, jobs requiring knowledge of economics. But many academics fear the erosion of economics curricula across the country means budding policymakers such as Ottoway will be ill-equipped to solve challenging and complex 21st-century policy problems.

Recently retired La Trobe professor of economics John King says the cuts to economics at La Trobe magnify the contemporary focus on neo-classical economics, the dominant school of free-market economics widely blamed for the global financial crisis. "Even before the cuts [at La Trobe] there was pressure on alternative ways of thinking about economics," says Professor King, who stepped down in late 2013. Earlier this year, the International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics published an open letter criticising the narrow, simplistic, uncritical focus of economics curricula. These concerns were echoed by La Trobe academic Tim Thornton, whose opinion piece for The Age appealed for the incorporation of political, philosophical, historical and psychological perspectives on economics. PPE degrees exist in recognition of the fact that fact that politics, economics and philosophy share the same roots. Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, was in fact a moral philosopher. But Lily Falconer, president of the La Trobe PPE Society says La Trobe's PPE degree no longer offers the broad-spectrum, cross-disciplinary education that attracted her. "Someone who did exactly the same degree as me, paid as much HECS as me but started their degree one year or two years before me got so much more choice and so much more variety," Falconer says.

Last year when the PPE degree's cross-disciplinary tutorial was cancelled, the PPE society took it upon themselves to run the tutorials. Yet despite such challenges, Falconer considers herself one of the lucky ones. "These kids that are enrolling in the degree this year, I feel for them so much," she says. "I'd tell them to go somewhere else really, because there's not much on offer." Professor Leigh Drake, executivedean of business and law, says that the abolition of the Bachelor of Economics reflects falling demand among students. "That's not to say students don't want to study economics – they want to pick it up while they're studying business," Drake says. Despite the cuts, he argues that La Trobe still offers a good mix of economics subjects. "If we weren't offering appropriate diversity … it wouldn't be credible to students, [and] it wouldn't be credible for employers. That doesn't mean that we have to have a prolific range of subjects," Drake says.

He says the university draws upon advice from employers and the Australian Business Deans council in deciding the mix of subjects offered. The cuts at La Trobe reflect a much broader trend, says John Lodewijks from the University of New South Wales, whose analysis tracks the long-term decline of economics departments across the nation. He says more must be done to revive the discipline in the face of declining interest from students. "Is a university which dispenses with its economics discipline still a fully fledged university, given how important economics is to public policy?" Lodewijks asks. But subject diversity isn't the only collateral damage as La Trobe phases out its Bachelor of Economics, says third-year student Leo Gifford. "What I didn't know was just how badly the quality of the teaching was going to be affected instantaneously," says 31-year-old Gifford, who's using the Bachelor of Economics to upskill and change careers.

Gifford says he feels ripped off because some experienced lecturers have been replaced by junior staff, but Drake denies this is happening. Gifford attends lectures to stay engaged, but claims the teaching quality is poor. "You pay a huge amount of money for these subjects and you don't fully understand that until you've been to uni once and paid off your HECS debt."