The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations has called on Education Minister Christopher Pyne to explain why student leaders are being removed from Government-linked committees, after a letter sent to him more than five weeks ago has remained unanswered.
The Presidents of the peak bodies representing Australia’s student population, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations and the National Union of Students, have not been invited back to two Government committees they sat on prior to the election of the Abbott Government – and Minister Pyne has yet to explain why.
“The Presidents of both the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations and the National Union of Students have sat on the Office for Learning and Teaching’s Awards Standing Committee since its inception, but this year neither organisation has been invited back” Ms Hopper said.
“When I sought further information as to why we had not been invited to be part of the OLT Awards Standing Committee in 2014, I was advised that ‘All the positions in all the committees in 2014 are up for review and decision by the Government’” Ms Hopper said.
“That was back in June and nominations for the Awards closed in May, so it certainly looks like this Government has no place for student leaders on the panel that determines awards for excellence in teaching and learning” said Ms Hopper.
Ms Hopper said that she and the President of the National Union of Students had also previously sat on the National Advisory Group on Higher Education Data and Information (NAGHEDI), but had not been invited to participate in the reference group that replaced it.
“We received advice from the Department on July 11th that following the establishment of the TEQSA Advisory Council, it had been decided that the NAGHEDI would be replaced by a Higher Education Data Committee. The letter thanked me for my service on the NAGHEDI but said nothing about how postgraduate students would be represented on the new Committee” Ms Hopper said.
“I wrote to Minister Pyne on July 16th seeking a response around why his Department appeared to be eroding consultation with student leaders on their Committees and five weeks’ later, I am yet to hear from him” said Ms Hopper.
“This is part of a larger concern that the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations has with Christopher Pyne refusing to consult with students on any of the plans his new Government has for higher education” Ms Hopper said.
“Then, after months of ignoring student leaders, on Sunday he insults us and tells us to ‘get some perspective’.[1] He keeps arguing that students shouldn’t be protesting the higher education Budget cuts but then he won’t give us any other method of communicating with him” said Ms Hopper.
“He won’t speak to us. He won’t hear from us. This cavalier response to the students Christopher Pyne is asking to pay for his higher education reforms is a disgrace.”
Ms Meghan B. Hopper
President – Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations
president@capa.edu.au / 0421 807 303
