Senate Inquiry into the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Student Services and Amenities, and Other Measures) Bill 2009
19 February 2009
Summary
The Curtin Student Guild welcomes the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Student Services and Amenities, and Other Measures) Bill 2009, and its supporting Guidelines. Strong student services and amenities are vital to all universities and over the last few years have been severely damaged, to the detriment of the Australia’s higher education sector. This legislation goes some way to restoring adequate student resources, advocacy and representation on university campuses., however the Curtin Student Guild does have some very major concerns with a number of areas with the legislation, which are outlined below.
Recommendations
- That student representative bodies be guaranteed a set amount of funding from the Student Services and Amenities Fee independent of university interference.
- That firmer guidelines be put into place that ensure student representation on all decision making bodies that have the power to affect any aspect of student life.
- That the legislation ensures that existing student representation is maintained and expanded upon, to ensure Universities do not exclude existing student bodies.
- That a specific percentage of the fee is set aside for initiatives above and beyond those currently offered by universities.
1. Independence of representative student organisations:
The Curtin University Student Guild strongly supports the Bill’s measures to ensure adequate student representation and equity is compulsorily funded via the Student Services and Amenities Fee. The rights of students to have a voice and be considered in institutional decision making is essential. But just as importantly, the voice of those students must be independent and in no way controlled or influenced by the university. Allowing universities to control student funds allocated to representation and to distribute them as they see fit negates any independence and renders the student body as nothing more than a university subsidiary.
The Curtin Student Guild is in the extremely fortunate position that it is able to survive in the post-VSU environment with no support from the University. While the Guild does receive funding through a service level agreement from Curtin University ($700,000 in 2008) to ensure the continuation of the services we provide (student welfare support, etc), the majority of its income comes from other sources (primarily membership and catering and retail outlets) and it would be able to survive without the additional funds from Curtin. When compared to the dire financial situations of many other student organisations around the country, the Curtin Guild is very fortunate to be in this position. This financial independence allows student representatives to speak up for what the student body wants and deserves from the university, with little fear of recrimination by way of withdrawing funds it upsets the University.
It also allows for support staff such as clubs and research officers to be employed and the payment of honorariums to some elected representatives, allowing for more time and energy being spent on the representative roles that are the most important functions of student organisations. While the Guild is pleased to see that the Student Services, Amenities, Representation and Advocacy Guidelines set out mandatory levels of democratically elected student representation, these are virtually meaningless while universities are responsible for the distribution of funds. Student money being spent on student representation should go straight to the representative bodies which are being organised by democratically elected students.
2. Meaningful and consistent representation
Minimum standards should be set that ensure student representatives are able to have an impact on all university decision making bodies that directly or indirectly affect student life. This includes, but is certainly not limited to: selection panels, teaching and learning committees, sport and recreation bodies and any groups that influence the strategic direction of the university that may impact students.
The 2008 AUQA audit of Curtin found that the Curtin Student Guild had one of the greatest levels of student representation in Australia. Indeed, Curtin University received a commendation for encouraging the active role that the Curtin Guild takes on boards and committees and in advocacy[1]. The presence of Guild representatives on over 100 committee and working group meetings, and employment selection processes boards and committees ensures not only that students have an influence on their educational experience, but that the University has an honest and direct line of communication to a democratically elected and well organised independent student voice.
It is not enough simply to have a group of student representatives at the university – they must be enabled to be active and have sufficient opportunities to influence university decisions and policies. Active and widespread student representation has proven to be very successful at Curtin, but other Universities will not willingly accept real and significant changes to their decision making structures unless appropriate Guidelines ensure that they have to.
3. The importance of existing student representation
While the current Bill should be commended for its support of student representation at universities, it does nothing to recognise the important role that student representative bodies already perform throughout Australian universities. Despite the severe damage that student guilds and unions incurred due to the VSU legislation, student bodies have done very well to persevere in a very difficult climate.
With little or no funding from the government or universities many student organisations were forced to close and virtually all had to make significant cutbacks to staff and services. The Guidelines are worrying in that they do not recognise the significance of existing guilds and unions who have served their student’s needs for many years, despite the very difficult conditions that they experienced. The current requirements to make student representation compulsory could still allow universities to bypass existing student organisations and create new, less representative and experienced bodies. The hard work, experience and dedication apparent in student representative bodies that exist currently should be recognised by the Bill, and the Guidelines should ensure that they are not excluded from funding in favour of new organisations invented by universities.
That student representative bodies be guaranteed a set amount of funding from the Student Services and Amenities Fee independent of university interference.
That firmer guidelines be put into place that ensure student representation on all decision making bodies that have the power to affect any aspect of student life.
That the legislation ensures that existing student representation is maintained and expanded upon, to ensure Universities do not exclude existing student bodies.
That a specific percentage of the fee is set aside for initiatives above and beyond those currently offered by universities.
Universities currently fund many of the services outlined in the Guidelines through their existing budgets. Curtin University, for example, already provides relatively good levels of housing services, health care, employment and career advice, academic services and support for overseas students. By and large it does these very well and is to be commended on its efforts. But the fee being paid by students should not simply be used to enable universities to re-direct funding that is already being spent on existing student services. As this is a new fee it should largely be allocated to new services and facilities that were not previously funded by universities.
While we acknowledge the efforts of all universities who have put time and resources into existing student services, it is not fair for students to pay up to $250 a year if they do not see an expanded standard of service in exchange for an extra fee. Setting a specific cap on what percentage of the fee must be used on expanding existing services and implementing new ones will ensure that the fee is actually going towards increased services for students, rather than just topping up university budgets.
Prepared by Jessica Short (Education Vice President) on behalf of Curtin University Student Guild
Phone (08) 9266 2920 for further information