One of the silliest, and stupidly destructive, decisions of the Howard Government was the introduction of ‘voluntary student unionism’. This was an ideological battle left over from the 1970s that had remained an obsession with people like Tony Abbott, Peter Costello and Eric Abetz.
All that happened was that services provided on campuses around the country declined and, absurdly. universities were prevented from charging a services fee by the Government. It is fascinating how interventionist, and heavy-handed, the Liberal party can be when it suits them.
So it is good to see the new government introducing a new services charge:
The Federal Opposition says the Government’s new plan for student services fees at universities could be used to channel money to student unions.
From July next year, universities will be able to charge students up to $250 a year to run services such as health, childcare and counselling.
The new fees will replace money lost when the previous federal government introduced voluntary student unionism three years ago.
Federal Youth Minister Kate Ellis says there will be no role for student organisations or unions in providing the services.
Of course, education spokesperson Christopher Pyne is whining about it but he’s a silvertail lightweight and another ideological crusader who has yet to make any substantive policy contribution in any portfolio.
3 Comments
Which services declined, what figures are you using to support that assertion and why is it absurd for governments to prevent public educational bodies from arbitrarily imposing fees on students?
There’s plenty of evidence and where services haven’t declined it’s because unis have chipped in from there general grants to make up shortfalls as in this ABC report from August:
The Department of Education report has found the abolition of compulsory student union fees two years ago has had a negative impact on most universities, especially those in regional areas.
The authors quote a submission stating there has been a loss of photocopying services and a dramatic drop in use of advocacy services.
And the report includes part of a submission stating higher food costs and the loss of a second-hand book store at the Bathurst campus.
But CSU’s executive director of finance, Jim Hackett, says the report dwells on the negative, but former student services have been replaced with a new structure.
“The students still have a voice and they still run their own affairs and I think you’ll find that the majority of students at CSU, in fact all students I think would say that they’ve hardly noticed any difference,” he said.
Mr Hackett says he hopes the Federal Government’s discussions about higher education will result in more funding to help the university continue to provide student services.
“I think what they’re looking at is perhaps making up some of the lost revenue from the government to assist universities maintain services and we would certainly welcome that at CSU,” he said.
“We’ve put in, well it’s over a million dollars, into maintaining the service and that money has got to come from somewhere.”
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As to your second point about fees – there’s nothing arbitrary about it very little of our system is delivered on a fully-costs user pays basis. Very few people would be able to afford higher education if it was. HECS is also arbitrary, it is only loosely connected with course costs.
In any event, the government was intervening at a micro level when it was pretending to want the unis to operate independently, commercially and competitively. They did the same thing when they demanded staff go on AWAs. Nelson was a micro-manager and not much good at running a higher ed system
Except universities don’t impose HECS themselves (well I suppose you could argue they partially do). I agree with you on the micromanagement of universities and its good that Labor has gotten around to repealing that rubbish.
A loss of photocopying services? Is this a service essential to students that cannot be paid for on an as-needed basis? Ditto with higher food costs.
I have to say from my experiences with transitioning from VSU to CSU and then back to VSU at a Western Australian university I didn’t notice any decrease in food costs. When there was VSU there were adequate printing services etc.
Which advocacy services are you discussing here? Is there a reason why all students should be charged for advocacy services they may not use when there are not similar schemes for other groups in society (e.g. police, nurses etc.) For these groups you can only access the services if you are a member of the union.
In regard to the second hand bookshop, is it not possible that if the second hand bookshop had been run successfully (that is a large number of students utilised its services) then it would not have closed down? Are there not other avenues students can go to to access second hand books, for instance placing ads on notice boards around the university and eBay?