Casuals

Nigel Palmer is President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA). He also has a number of years experience as a casual academic. He retells his exposure to academia as a sessional lecturer, and talks about the ‘elephant in the class room’ that is casual/ sessional teaching.

CAPA's 2007 election priorities are as follows:

• Secure support for independent student representation and services
• Income support reform for research and coursework postgraduate students
• Increased funding for HDR scholarships

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) is the national peak body representing Australia's 257,000 postgraduate students. These students are engaged in both coursework and research programs and include
84,600 international students. The Annual Council Meeting, comprising delegates from 36 postgraduate organisations and covering 34 Australian public universities, sets CAPA policy and direction.

New workplace relations requirements for universities were released yesterday by Education Minister Brendan Nelson, and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott--and universities must comply with them if they want access to $404 million in desperately needed funding.

"The new workplace relations requirements are all about union-bashing and have nothing to do with a concern for quality in higher education," said CAPA President Benjamin McKay today.

Postgraduate students view further Federal Government involvement in University industrial relations as another stark indicator of the unfolding "intellectual holocaust" in our institutions of higher learning and research.

"CAPA opposes any attempt by Government to link research funding to the signing of Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) contracts," CAPA President Benjamin McKay said today. "it would be an assault on the very fabric of our research culture."