MAJOR RALLY AGAINST PLAN TO PRICE PEOPLE OUT OF A DEGREE
21st August 2003
Thousands of higher education workers and concerned members of the public will protest in Melbourne against changes proposed by the Howard Government to increase the cost of a university education and reduce the workplace rights of university staff.
“It is clear that the Government’s higher education package will price many families out of higher education, especially those from lower income, regional and outer metropolitan areas,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) President.
“Among the changes being proposed is a potential 30% increase in HECS fees for nearly all undergraduate courses and the doubling of full fee places.”
“Australian universities are already highly reliant on tuition fees with only US private universities exceeding Australia’s 36% of revenue from student fees,” said Dr Allport. “Our university students are already $13 billion in debt and this will worsen further if the Government’s plan passes through the Senate.”
“While the Government has included some new investment for higher education, much of it is tied to workplace relations changes, in particular the introduction of individual contracts which will reduce staff’s conditions and entitlements,” said Sharan Burrow, ACTU President.
“University staff have played a key role in maintaining the quality of higher education delivered to students in a difficult financial environment, however this has come at a cost: increasing workloads, greater stress and mounting job insecurity. Student-to-staff ratios alone have risen by 44%, from 14.2 in 1993 to 20.4 in 2002.”
The NTEU has organised today’s rally to send a message to the Government that its policy of deregulating university fees and reducing the rights of university staff is not on and will be opposed by the community.