Staff support student action on the state of higher education
22 March 2000
The National Tertiary Education Union is supporting students across the country today who are protesting against the ongoing deregulation of Australian higher education. NTEU members will be attending rallies in capital cities and on campus, and members have been asked not to penalize students who miss classes because of their participation in the National Day of Action. NTEU President Carolyn Allport will address a rally in Sydney today.
`The creeping privatization of Australian universities is an issue which affects staff as well as students,’ said Dr Allport. `The first phase of an ARC-funded study on university staff stress, in which NTEU is a partner, suggests that a significant number of staff are suffering from stress-related illness and low morale as a result of increased workloads and greater pressure to generate commercial revenue.’
`One illustration of this pressure is the student:staff ratios which, according to official data, have risen from 14.5:1 in 1995 to 18.3:1 in 1999.’
Dr Allport said that the community as a whole would be the poorer if universities were allowed to become fully privatized entities.
`Increasingly, those who pay the money would call the shots,’ she said. `We’ve already seen intellectual freedom and the independence of some university research suffer because of increased reliance on private money.‘
` We’ve seen costs to students and their families increase dramatically over the past five years. Australian students now pay more through HECS than their counterparts in public universities in the UK and the US. Further deregulation would see improved access for the elite, while those who can’t afford to pay get left behind.’
`A vigorous and fair public education system is the cornerstone of a civilized democracy. We must not allow it to be destroyed by economic rationalism.’