Staff & Students Unite To Say NO to Fee Hikes & Industrial Reforms
14 May 2003
Organisations representing university staff and students have agreed to work together to defeat measures in the Government’s higher education package aimed at massively increasing undergraduate and postgraduate student fees and forcing staff onto individual contracts.
“This package effectively abolishes HECS as we know it and replaces it with a new market based fee scheme that will charge students 30% more than the existing scheme,” said Daniel Kyriacou, NUS President. “Hardest hit will be students from working class and rural backgrounds, but the Government’s attempt to escape their obligations to properly fund higher education will affect all university students and their families.”
“The fees and charges introduced in this package will lead to a generation debt. Debt will be a ball and chain around the aspirations of graduates on everything from buying a home to starting a family, to saving for the future.”
“The Government has made it clear that it intends to target the NTEU by making $400 million in funding, conditional on university management forcing academic staff onto individual agreements and introducing changes to the Workplace Relations Act to remove university staff’s right to strike,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President.
“This appears to be nothing more than a $400 million vendetta by the Government against the NTEU which has nothing to do with improving the quality of Australia’s higher education system. $400 million could have funded an additional 33,000 subsidised student places, roughly equivalent to the unmet demand for university places in 2003.”
“The only thing in the package for postgraduates is market interest rates on full fees,” said Benjamin McKay, President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA). “Postgraduate students are now shouldering much of the responsibility for specialised training in the national interest.”
“Any attempts by the Government to divide and isolate undergraduate and postgraduate students and staff are in vain. This package will see a unified response by those who represent the vast majority of the higher education sector’s stakeholders.”
For information and comment:
Benjamin McKay, CAPA President: 0425 823 144
Daniel Kyriacou, NUS President: 0411 606 808
Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President: 0419 394 064, nteunat@nteu.org.au
THE PRESIDENTS OF NUS, CAPA AND NTEU WILL HOLD A DOOR STOP INTERVIEW ON THE HIGHER EDUCATION PACKAGE AT 2PM, TODAY, SENATE ENTRANCE