Student advocacy and representation

Voluntary Student Unionism and the Student Services and Amenities Bill

The legacy of the Howard Government’s voluntary student unionism (VSU) legislation introduced in 2005 has been the loss of essential services for many students at Australia’s universities, including access to affordable child and health care services and independent advocacy in relation to academic matters.

In 2008, the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sport, Kate Ellis, announced a review into the effects of VSU legislation.  The resulting report, released in late 2008, indicated that $170 million had been stripped from student services and amenities, resulting in the widespread decline, and in some cases the complete closure, of health, counselling, employment, childcare, welfare support and academic advocacy services. 

The Report also found that students were often paying considerably more for access to reduced services, and that a number of institutions had been forced to redirect funding from teaching and research budgets to support services and amenities that would otherwise have been cut.

In response to the Review, the Federal Government announced on 11 February 2009 proposed legislation aimed at restoring student services, advocacy and representation to university campuses.

The Student Services and Amenities Fee Guidelines will specify the purposes for which any compulsory services and amenities fee may be used, and set out the administrative arrangements for that fee, including those that relate to SA-HELP. Higher education providers that receive Commonwealth Grant Scheme (CGS) funding will be required, as a condition of CGS funding from 2010 onwards, to meet the new Benchmarks and Protocols.

NTEU  has been an active participant in the Government's consultation that is currently taking place within the sector. As part of this, NTEU has reiterated the Union's support for:

• The ongoing existence of independent student organisations at every university campus.
• The right of institutions to collect services fees from all students not just international students, to support student organisations.
• The right of student organisations to represent their members and to allocate resources according to the democratic will of their membership

As of late September 2009, the Bill has been defeated in the Senate and is before Parliament for the second time.

For more information contact:

The Policy and Research Unit on (03) 9254 1910. You can also contact Paul Kniest or Terri Mac Donald.

You can access further resources from the links below.