Tonight’s Federal Budget speech from Treasurer Wayne Swan was one that focused on the importance of education to the national economy, but failed to address concerns that the Government’s current approach to higher education is one of quantity over quality, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations has said.
“In tonight’s Federal Budget speech, Wayne Swan promised to deliver a stronger, smarter and fairer Australia, one which invests in education and training, in boosting productivity, protecting and creating jobs, and growing the economy – but he failed to reconcile these promises with the Budget’s cuts to the higher education sector, a sector that provides toward all of these objectives in spades,” said Meghan Hopper, President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.
“The Treasurer said tonight that the Labor Government’s approach is simple – jobs, and growth,” noted Ms Hopper.
“To the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, there is one other fact that is very simple – you cannot achieve a smarter Australia and a world-class economy, without a world-class higher education system,” said Ms Hopper.
“While the Treasurer is quick to point to steady increases in funding to higher education over recent years, these increases have been directly tied to dramatic increases in student numbers – an extra 149,000 Commonwealth supported university student places in 2013 compared to 2007,” said Ms Hopper.
“Of course a greater quantity of students leads to a greater quantity of overall funding, but as the cuts to higher education in tonight’s budget illustrate, quantity is not the same thing as quality,” said Ms Hopper.
“Tonight’s Budget includes cuts of $2.3 billion to the higher education sector, including $276 million by removing discounts on upfront HELP payments; $900 million in “efficiency dividends”, which Vice Chancellors across Australia have warned will go straight to teaching and education quality; and close to $1.2 billion on converting the Student Start-up Scholarships into an income contingent loan program,” said Ms Hopper.
“The conversion of start-up scholarships into loans in particular will have a real impact on students deciding whether to undertake further tertiary study, including postgraduate study – a lot of students will be asking themselves whether it is really worth all of the extra debt,” said Ms Hopper.
“We’ve also had tax claims on education expenses capped at $2,000, something which disproportionately affects postgraduate and Higher Degree by Research students who are often required to up-skill or to undertake international travel as an integral part of their research,” Ms Hopper said.
“What these cuts result in is more students, receiving a lower quality of education, a lower quality student experience – and that’s not what higher education funding should be about,” said Ms Hopper.
“With the Government investing $9.8 billion toward the Gonski reforms over six years, what this effectively means is that a quarter of the funding toward primary and secondary education improvements, is coming from our already desperately under-funded higher education sector – literally robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Ms Hopper.
“What this Budget fails to realise is that when you provide funding to generate world-class primary and secondary students, many of those students are going to inevitably expect to go on to a similarly world-class tertiary education – and that simply won’t exist if we continue to fund our higher education system at 24th place out of the world’s 29 developed economies,” said Ms Hopper.
“The Treasurer has told us tonight that building a smarter nation means building a skilled workforce and a strong, productive and resilient economy. You simply cannot achieve any of these goals without a strong higher education system,” said Ms Hopper.
Meghan B. Hopper, President
Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations
president@capa.edu.au
0421 807 303
The President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations is today visiting Macquarie University to meet with their Postgraduate Representative Association, as the University prepares to forcibly wind up the longstanding organisation.
The National President of CAPA, Meghan Hopper, has revealed that despite writing over four weeks ago to request a meeting with Macquarie University’s Vice Chancellor, Bruce Dowton, to discuss the University’s dispute with MUPRA, the Vice Chancellor’s office had failed to respond.
“The Macquarie University Vice Chancellor’s failure to respond to a simple request for a meeting with the national representative of postgraduate students, is symptomatic of that University’s ongoing disregard for student representation,” said Meghan Hopper, President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.
“There are no more ifs or buts about it: the administration of Macquarie University does not believe in democratically elected, independent student representation and it’s a stance that CAPA firmly rejects,” said Meghan Hopper, CAPA President.
“When Macquarie University forcibly wound up the undergraduate association her in late 2012 and announced that they would replace democratically elected student representatives with a selection of students hand picked by them to “advise”, we were concerned that the same fate would befall MUPRA and now our fears have been realised,” Ms Hopper said.
“At CAPA, we have no time for bodies that purport to be representative of students but are in fact made up of students ‘cherry picked’ by University Administration to agree with them,” Ms Hopper said.
“Macquarie University Postgraduate Representative Association is the sole democratically elected, independent voice of postgraduate and higher degree by research students at Macquarie University one of the oldest such organisations in the country, one of the few remaining independent postgraduate associations at a non Group of 8 University in the post VSU era,” said Ms Hopper.
“CAPA stands firmly behind MUPRA and its 2013 President, Tim Hendry. We will not recognise any other body as the representatives of postgraduates at Macquarie University and we will continue to work with Tim to ensure that the postgraduate voice at Macquarie is represented,” Ms Hopper said.
Macquarie University Provost, Judyth Sachs wrote to MUPRA President Tim Hendry on April 2nd, indicating Macquarie University’s intention to forcibly wind up the Macquarie University Postgraduate Representative Association.
“In announcing their intention to wind up MUPRA, Macquarie University has alleged financial impropriety, failure to represent postgraduate students, and failure to provide services to postgraduate students. Macquarie University is wrong,” said MUPRA President, Tim Hendry.
“Macquarie University is so desperate to make sure postgraduates do not have an independent voice on campus that it is prepared to defame the good names of students who have volunteered their time and effort to advance the interests of postgraduatestudents at Macquarie University,” Mr Hendry said.
Macquarie University Postgraduate Representative Association has compiled a list of facts of the University’s dispute with them.
“The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations will today launch a petition and letter writing campaign, letting Macquarie University know that their continued campaign to silence the voice of their students is not on,” said Ms Hopper.
The President of MUPRA will meet with the Macquarie University Provost on May 6th for a “hearing” to determine the future of MUPRA.
Meghan B. Hopper, President
Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations
president@capa.edu.au
0421 807 303
On the closure of Macquarie University Student Representative Association (undergraduate body):
On Macquarie University Postgraduate Representative Association:
www.mupra.com
On the CAPA letter writing and petition campaign (online from the morning of May 2nd):
www.capa.edu.au
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations has today condemned the Federal Opposition for confirming that they would not repeal funding cuts to the higher education sector, despite their intention to reverse the Gonski education reforms that the funding is intended to contribute to.
“Last week, we described the Government’s cuts – taking $2.3bn from the Higher Education sector to help fund the Gonski education reforms – as robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said CAPA President, Meghan Hopper.
“Now, we see that the Coalition is simply robbing students – and then running away with their money.”
“Tony Abbott has spent the last week condemning the Government’s decision to cut funding to higher education – but when given the chance to right this wrong he has instead made things worse,” said Ms Hopper.
“If Tony Abbott intends to rip money out of the hands of university students and staff, he must justify where he believes that money could be better used,” Ms Hopper said.
At the Universities Australia conference earlier this year, Mr Abbott told the higher education sector’s most senior representatives that “to avoid further cuts rather than to win higher funding is often the best outcome that particular sectors can hope for”.
Said Ms Hopper, “It is misleading for Tony Abbott to on the one hand stand before Universities Australia and say that the sector can hope to avoid further cuts under a Coalition Government; but to then, a mere eight weeks later, announce that his Government will make indiscriminate and unjustified cuts to higher education.”
The Coalition has also pledged to abolish the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF), the preservation of which is an election year priority for CAPA.
“Universities and postgraduate students need to start asking the tough questions of Mr Abbott if we are to determine exactly what a Coalition Government would mean for higher education,” Ms Hopper said.
“The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations asks Mr Abbott to clarify why he intends to drive students further and further into debt under a Coalition Government, with no explanation of where their hard-earned money is going,” said Ms Hopper.
“Right now, it seems like a continued race to the bottom, with neither of the major parties making higher education an election priority.”
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations will today release its report on the first year of the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF), ‘One Year In: What SSAF Means to Postgraduate Students’ at Murdoch University, Western Australia.
The report is the result of a survey of CAPA affiliate postgraduate associations undertaken in late 2012, and provides a compelling insight into the realities of the consultation and funding negotiation process undertaken by universities around this legislation in its first year.
CAPA’s report into the first year of the Student Services and Amenities Fee comes hot on the heels of the announcement on February 1st that the Minister will undertake a review into the legislation’s student representation guidelines.
CAPA’s report will compliment the report being released by the National Union of Students on Wednesday, ‘NUS Report into the Implementation of the Student Services and Amenities Fee 2012’. The two reports were modeled on the same survey questions to student representatives and together, cover the full student representation spectrum of undergraduate and postgraduate concerns.
“We are excited to be the first student representative peak body to launch our report into the first year of the Student Services and Amenities Fee, just days after the Minister announced a much-needed review of the legislation’s student representation guidelines,” said President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, Meghan Hopper.
“We welcome the announcement of the review into SSAF student representation guidelines. The SSAF is a great step forward in funding student representation, but there are significant improvements to the consultation process that need to be made,” Ms Hopper said.
“While we are happy about the review, we have written to the Minister to express our concern around the decision to represent undergraduate students, but not postgraduates on the review panel,” said Ms Hopper.
“As our report illustrates, postgraduate representatives view the needs of their cohort as distinct, with a significant number of our representatives expressing concern around the lack of consultation with postgraduates in the SSAF’s first year,” said Ms Hopper.
“More than half of our affiliates surveyed indicated that the democratically elected representative of postgraduate students was not included in SSAF negotiations; many expressed concern that undergraduates had been invited to consult on their behalf,” Ms Hopper said.
“Our affiliates enjoy a positive relationship with their undergraduate counterparts, but at the same time feel very strongly that undergraduate students are not qualified to represent the unique concerns of postgraduate students,” said Ms Hopper.
Ms Hopper said that ‘One Year In’ revealed many concerning outcomes for postgraduate representatives and the students they represent in the first year of the Student Services and Amenities Fee, illustrating the great need for postgraduate involvement in such a review.
“When our representatives were surveyed in August, a quarter of respondents indicated that they were still attempting to negotiate a funding agreement for 2012 – despite the fact that their universities had been entitled to charge SSAF since the beginning of the academic year,” Ms Hopper said.
“Alarmingly, 83% of postgraduate associations surveyed indicated that they would NOT recommend the funding negotiation process their university undertook in the first year of SSAF,” said Ms Hopper.
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations today welcomed the announcement by the Prime Minister that the Federal Election will take place on September 14th.
CAPA President Meghan Hopper said that the unusually early notice provided for the election meant that there would be plenty of time to debate the issues of importance to postgraduate students and Higher Education professionals.
“We’ve got 225 days and counting to make Higher Education a priority in this election campaign,” Ms Hopper said.
“Deregulation, freedom of research expression, course cuts and the Student Services and Amenities Fee are policy areas that our student representatives have identified as priorities going into this campaign.”
Ms Hopper said that CAPA was looking forward to spearheading its own non-partisan, issue-based campaign around Higher Education, particularly as it relates to postgraduate coursework and Higher Degree by Research students.
“As has been the case in every Federal Election since our foundation in 1979, CAPA will be initiating a non-partisan, policy-based campaign that speaks to the issues that matter to postgraduate students,” Ms Hopper said.
“We’ll be calling upon each of the parties to outline their commitments to Higher Education, and specifically how they will improve outcomes for postgraduates.”
“Like all student representatives, we’re concerned about the future of the Student Services and Amenities Fee under a Coalition Government, and so over the coming 225 days we’ll be continuing to talk about the importance of student funding going to student services and representation,” said Ms Hopper.
“But we also acknowledge that the Student Services and Amenities Fee is not a perfect piece of legislation, so we’re looking forward to a discussion that leads to the legislation becoming stronger, with better consultation and better outcomes for students.”
Contact:
Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations President,
Meghan B. Hopper
0421 807 303 / president@capa.edu.au
Vale John Nowakowski, Former Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations President, a Friend to Australian Students.
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations today mourns the loss of our dear friend and colleague, former CAPA President and National Secretary John Nowakowski, a well-loved and admired advocate in the postgraduate and broader higher education community.
John served with the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations as our 2011 National President, and our 2010 and 2012 National Secretary. He was also tireless in his representation of postgraduate students at CAPA affiliate organisation Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association, where he served as a 2010 President and across a variety of other roles in policy and student equity rights. Most recently, he served as SUPRA Vice President – Publications.
All of us on the CAPA Executive and Officer team would like to thank the many members of the student representative community who have contacted us with expressions of condolence and support over the past hours.
John loved CAPA. He was dedicated and passionate in his support for postgraduate advocacy and representation.
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations is a better organisation for having been graced with John Nowakowski’s involvement over the past four years. He was a person who truly gave unto others. He is well loved and well missed by all of his many friends and colleagues within our current Executive and Officer team, our alumni, affiliates and friends.
As President, John was known for his grassroots approach. At the commencement of his Presidency in 2011, John undertook to visit each of the Universities across Australia at least once during his term, to meet with their postgraduate students and representatives and to advocate at the source. He only missed one.
John also represented postgraduate students at the highest levels of government and within industry, speaking at many conferences, writing on higher education for a variety of Australian publications, and providing the driving force for our most recent major study, ‘The Research Education Experience’, completed alongside the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.
In remembering John’s love for CAPA and for student representation, it is perhaps best to use his own words. Reflecting in May, 2012 on his many roles within CAPA and SUPRA, John said:
“For me, CAPA began only three months after I began with national politics, and I was quickly swept up into the fascinating world with Tammi (Jonas) and Nigel (Palmer, 2010 and 2007-9 CAPA Presidents, respectively). We were a poor organisation, but a confident and happy one.
“2011 was one of the times in life when I was stretched to my mental limits, pushed physically for a very demanding role, and achieved what I believe were a range of outcomes that were most exciting – two new associations joining, resolving membership at more, working with the government, deans and directors of graduate studies, and students nationally to achieve change and enact policy for the benefit of all.
“The job of President was a job I truly loved, and one I thought I did well.”
John was well known for his active use of social media, where he met many friends and advocated for the many causes about which he was passionate. It is a fitting tribute that social media has been flooded today with tributes for John and his family, from various CAPA alumni, affiliates and friends; representatives of the higher education sector; representatives of the Australian media; and the many other people who came to know and love John throughout his short life.
We have been grateful to John’s brother, Pete, who has kept all of us at CAPA, and our friends at SUPRA informed during this time of terrible strain. We send our sincere condolences to John’s family and many loved ones at this difficult time, as well as to all of our friends at SUPRA.
John passed away in the early hours of this morning, January 15, 2013 at Sutherland Hospital, New South Wales from complications relating to an infection. He was twenty-seven. His family will provide details of a service to remember John within the coming days.
Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations President, Meghan B. Hopper
0421 807 303 / president@capa.edu.au
Tributes on Twitter are encouraged @janek85.
