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Indigenous staff critical to boosting Indigenous university student numbers

Posted 18 December 2012 by Jeannie Rea (NTEU National Office)

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) welcomed the announcement today (17 December) by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Senator Evans, on plans to double the number of Indigenous university students, but said that boosting the number of Indigenous staff at universities had to be part of the solution.

“Over the past decade the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff working at Australian universities has doubled. However, Indigenous academic and general staff are still only one per cent of the workforce though they constitute 2.2% of the Australian population aged 15-64 years,” said NTEU President Jeannie Rea.

Senator Evans made the commitment to population parity for Indigenous students in announcing the newly constituted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Advisory Council, which will advise on how to reach this goal.

“Having staff and students represented on the Council is critical to its success and we welcome the inclusion of nominees from both the NTEU and the National Union of Students,” Rea said.

Rea said that the NTEU had long campaigned to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff working at Australian universities.

“Targets for Indigenous employment are standard parts of enterprise agreements negotiated between the union and universities and have played a part in achieving the growth in staff.

“In our current enterprise bargaining round, the NTEU is calling upon universities across Australia to go further than percentage targets and commit themselves to numerical targets to increase the number of Indigenous academic and general staff over the next four years.”

Terry Mason, Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Sydney and chair of the NTEU’s National Indigenous Policy Committee, said that the success of Indigenous students strongly correlated to universities being culturally inclusive and safe places for Indigenous people. 

“Indigenous students continue to have lower completion rates than other students. Having Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff to support and mentor Indigenous students is vital to them staying the distance. Even just to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff around universities sends a positive message,” he said.

“Education and employment are fundamental to bridging the gap. Universities have a duty to lead, not just because they are major employers but also because Indigenous students need to see that universities value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as employees with important contributions to make. The commitment needs to be more than token – which is why real targets are critical,” he said. 

Media enquiries: Carmel Shute, NTEU Media Officer: 0412 569 356; cshute@nteu.org.au

Media comment: Terry Mason, Chair, NTEU Indigenous Policy Committee: 0402 216 273; t.mason@uws.edu.au

Jeannie Rea, NTEU National President: 0434 609 531; jrea@nteu.org.au

 

Tags: , , , , • Related Blogs: ACT Division, NSW Division, NT Division, Vic Division, WA Division, SA Division, Qld Division, Tas Division, Australian Catholic University, University of Adelaide, Australian Defence Force Academy, Australian National University, University of Ballarat, Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Bond University, University of Canberra, Charles Darwin University, Central Queensland University, Charles Sturt University, Curtin University of Technology, Deakin University, Edith Cowan University, Flinders University, Griffith University, James Cook University, La Trobe University, Macquarie University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, Murdoch University, University of Notre Dame Australia, University of Newcastle, University of New South Wales, Queensland University of Technology, RMIT University, Southern Cross University, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Sydney, University of New England, University of Queensland, University of South Australia, University of the Sunshine Coast, University of Southern Queensland, University of Technology Sydney, University of Western Australia, University of Western Sydney, Victoria University, University of Wollongong, edXpress

Comments

  1. allah said on 22:12 Monday 13 May, 2013

    [ +1 ] Why do they bring there stinking ape friends to steal?
    Black man on campus-run like hell girls!

    Like • Dislike •
  2. Thomas James said on 14:15 Thursday 3 Jan, 2013

    [ +2 ] Jeannie - it will mean nothing if Universities employ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander simply because of their herritage. I'm married to an Aboriginal lady who works at one of the Uni's in NSW and she said that there are a lot who have no degrees and are charged with getting kids into University - HOW does that work??? We need to make sure we have the best workers to assist the young Indigenous students and if they happen to be Non Indigenous then so be it. Lets not set up people to fail. I know there are Uni's like Syd and UNSW who are working to increase their Indigenous staff, but not lose their standards. If this is taken up across the board we might be able to see a massive increase.

    I look forward to seeing NTEU be a leader in this - just a quick questions do you liaise with the Aboriginal units @ Universities? My wife said she hasn't seen a rep at her section since she started three years ago

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