Student reps deemed not fit to survive

As part of merger plans the Northern Territory University is changing its name to Charles Darwin University. This requires legislative changes in the Northern Territory Parliament. Harmless? Hardly. Slipped into the proposed legislation is a new governance model which removes student representation - a first at an Australian university.

The Northern Territory Parliament is considering establishing a Board of Trustees to replace the existing University Council. This Board would comprise the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor, Chair of the Academic Board, two elected academic staff representatives and eight members appointed by the Administrator (equivalent to a State Governor).

CAPA President Benjamin McKay condemns the proposed model. "This is a university, not a publicly listed company. Students are not clients, they are scholars. They are members of their universities. It is regrettable that in the Northern Territory students are set to become extinct in a model of governance that no longer represents all of the University's stakeholders."

Mr McKay, himself a deferred PhD candidate at the evolving Territory university, is concerned that, "this most unrepresentative and politically controlled model of university governance is being considered by a Territory Labor government. It looks like the Labor government might be test driving Federal Minister for Education Dr Brendan Nelson's preferred governance model."

"It appears the only compromise to date has been the inclusion of two elected academic staff members," said Mr McKay. "CAPA believes that representative governance at a university must also include at least two student representatives - at least one of whom, must be a postgraduate student. Again we are also concerned that general and support staff have been ignored in the proposed model. This is a dual sector university and I see no TAFE representation here either."

"Any member of any parliament who effectively votes to exclude student representation from university Councils, Senates and Boards of Trustees will find themselves publicly condemned by the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations - an organisation that represents over 185,000 research and coursework students" McKay warned.