More than 100 students and teachers from the Sydney College of the Arts have gathered to protest outside the Art Gallery of New South Wales in the lead up to the Archibald Prize being announced today.

The group gathered on the gallery steps to protest against a forced merger with the University of NSW School of Art and Design, scheduled for early next year.

Protest organiser and PhD candidate Kate Williams said the protest was designed to shine a light on the closure of their college.

She described the school as "one of our most important art training colleges" and said the move was designed to cut costs.

"It's to let people know that basically Sydney university has decided to shut down the college," Ms Williams said.

"They're calling it a merger. We're calling it a closure.

"It's the demise of the arts in NSW.

"I mean, to homogenise all the arts schools into one, Sydney is going to lose the diversity that we've got in arts schools at the moment."

The University of NSW and the University of Sydney both declined to comment.

Art is not something you could 'put a dollar sign on'

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Labor spokesman for Cities Anthony Albanese said art was not something that you could "always just put a dollar sign on".

"What we're seeing here from the university hierarchy ... being reduced to activity that's more and more commercial.

"That more and more sees education as a transaction between an individual and an institution, rather than something that benefits the whole of society.

"So I say to the students here, congratulations ... the local community stands with you in this struggle.

"This issue must be revisited and it must be revisited in the interests of students, in the interests of the community, but most importantly in the interests of this great global city and our reputation as a centre of arts and culture."