The Guardian 5 March, 2008
Student university services
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.
Responding to last month’s release of the National Union of Students (NUS) submission to Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations on the Review of the Impact of VSU, Dr Carolyn Allport, National President of the NTEU said: "The NTEU strongly supports NUS’s call for the introduction of a compulsory Student Support and Services Levy to ensure university students have independent, democratically-elected representative bodies that participate in the governance and provision of student-oriented services and activities at our universities."
The introduction of VSU has seen the demise of a number of elected student organisations at some Australian universities, and the evidence suggests that a number of others are in imminent danger of collapsing due to a lack of funding.
The NTEU is calling for the immediate introduction of a short term Student Services and Representative Transition Fund to sustain existing student representative bodies in danger of collapse as well as provide "start-up" funding for universities to re-establish student representative bodies where they have been lost as a result of VSU.
"VSU is perhaps the most blatant example of an ideologically motivated policy introduced by the Howard government that has threatened the sustainability and independence of our universities," said Ms Allport
"On a more pragmatic level the real impact of VSU on the day-to-day lives of students has been the withdrawal of many student services including access to affordable childcare, healthcare and independent student advocacy in academic matters.
"VSU had very little to do with improving the quality of education offered to Australian students but rather sought to gag the voice of student associations in policy debates."
The NTEU says it is essential that the 750,000 Australian university students are able to participate in the internal and external policy debates which are especially important with the election of a new government.
"The NTEU is confident that all of the issues surrounding student services and representation will be thoroughly canvassed through the consultations that the Minister for Youth, Kate Ellis, is currently undertaking with the sector.