Ms Morris, a student at the TAFE art school, said cuts to the arts budget meant there was no money left to hire nude models.

‘‘We’re going back to the cliches of still life which means you don’t actually get to learn the musculature and the spinal structure and the spinal cord and where all these things are,’’ she said.

‘‘An art school without life drawing and without models, it’s like IT without computers.’’

Concern about the future of art classes at the TAFE has been ongoing for at least six months, with reduced fine arts and digital media courses already incorporated into the 2012 curriculum.

Ms Morris said the Life Mode course had been merged with experimental drawing in a process she described as ‘‘cuts by stealth’’.

‘‘If the NSW TAFE art schools were closed en masse people would protest, but this is a much cleverer way - just cancelling a few subjects at a time.

‘‘They just drop one of the titles from the class and there’s something else cut without really any ability to have input.’’

Ms Morris said to meet budget, teachers were making difficult decisions, including taking unpaid annual leave.

‘‘There was just no money left to pay for models. It’s ridiculous.’’

A NSW Department of Education spokeswoman said claims the TAFE was reducing art courses and resources were ‘‘completely false’’.

‘‘West Wollongong TAFE maintains a strong commitment to the delivery of art courses.

‘‘There has been no reduction in the budget allocation for artists’ models, however teachers retain the discretion as to when life models are used.’’

An exhibition featuring the results of life drawing classes last year will open on Saturday at Yours and Owls.