TAKE THE TIME TO GET THE HIGHER EDUCATION LEGISLATION RIGHT
November 14 2003
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) supports many of the changes to the higher education legislation being proposed by the Australian Vice Chancellor’s Committee (AVCC), but stresses that there remain major areas of disagreement including the Vice Chancellors’ insistence that the legislation be passed this year.
“While the NTEU shares many of the AVCC’s concerns, and is preparing a number of detailed amendments in common, we believe that getting the Bills right is more important than getting them passed quickly,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President.
“The NTEU does not support the Higher Education Support Bill 2003 in its current state and believes that major changes need to be made to the legislation, including amendments to reduce the level of proposed Government intervention in the affairs of universities and protect university independence.”
“The Union urges the various interest groups and the parliament to set April 2004 as a target date for passing the Bills.”
The major amendments recommended by the AVCC that the NTEU is in agreement with include:
- The need for a clear distinction between universities and other self-accrediting institutions, and other providers.
- The need to remove excessive Government interference in the affairs of universities, including interference in decisions about which courses to teach.
- The need to reject the linking of funding to universities to the adoption of hard line workplace relations changes and reforms their governance structures.
- That there should be no interest charged on FEE-HELP and OS-HELP loans and that the HECS repayment threshold should be increased to $35,000.
“While supportive the AVCC’s efforts to secure additional funding for universities, the NTEU firmly believes that this should not be at the expense of students and their families,” said Dr Allport.
“The NTEU will oppose any Bill that allows universities to increases HECS charges by 30%.”
“The NTEU believes that major changes are needed to the proposed Commonwealth Grants Scheme to ensure that universities receive more funding.”
“The Union is also totally opposed to capping the amount of time that students are entitled to a Commonwealth subsidised place, as this is inequitable and counter to the need for life long learning.”
For information and comment:
Andrew Nette, NTEU Policy and Research Coordinator