Page 1408 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 6 April 2005
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Yet the federal government is seeking to undermine this important contribution on the premise that, to preserve choice, we must limit options. This is no kind of choice at all. The Western Australian experience of anti-student union legislation demonstrates the decline in services available to students as a result of the abolition of a universal contribution. Those services that did continue were reduced in their capacity and accessibility and were primarily funded by the universities themselves out of general operating budgets. This impacts on the capacity of universities to ensure the maximum quality of education. It impacts on us all, not only those in need of access to important services or representation.
The introduction of this legislation does not provide students with choice. It denies them choice. When services that are essential are no longer or not as readily available, there is no choice. You cannot choose to pay for a service that does not exist. Without universal student unionism, important functions of student unions could not survive. Anti-student union legislation is not about ensuring choice; it is about denying students their choice.
A challenge was presented last year to principles of accessible education by the introduction of federal legislation allowing increases of up to 25 per cent in HECS fees and the introduction of domestic full fee paying places. While predictably this legislation was framed in terms of choice, both for academic institutions and individual students, equally predictably the effect is to minimise choice for those potential students unable to pay high tuition fees.
The role of student unions in minimising the impact of these and other adverse positional changes to higher education is significant. The welfare services provided by student unions to their members in the form of assistance in accessing welfare services, accommodation services, health and counselling services, supporting students with disabilities, students as parents and other students for whom access to tertiary education presents particular challenges facilitate the access of those students to higher education.
Political representation and mobilisation through student unions is essential in campaigning against negative changes to higher education that limit access and re-establish universities as elite institutions. Despite the passage of the bills last year, the opposition from student organisations and the broader community to these changes highlighted the important capacity of student organisations to represent the interests of their members. This occurs at the campus level, too, through student representation on faculty boards and on university councils.
Academic appeals are an important function of student unions and are essential in ensuring accountability and due process of academic processes in Australian universities. Academic support in the form of study skills provides students with an important academic support to realise the full value of their education. The roles, functions and activities of student organisations are essential for the realisation of accessibility to tertiary education. They provide institutional and political support for students who otherwise would have difficulty accessing education or otherwise would be unable to realise their educational potential.
The cultural contribution of student organisations in this capacity cannot be underestimated. Student organisations provide important funding and support to the
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