Students left without a vote in universities

MEDIA RELEASE- STUDENTS LEFT WITHOUT A VOTE IN UNIVERSITIES

The UWA Postgraduate Students’ Association (UWA PSA) and the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) stand united in their rejection of the Universities Legislation Amendment Act tabled in in the WA State Parliament on the 20th of May 2016.

This legislation will disenfranchise students at all four of the WA public universities by removing the protections set in regards to the Student Services and Amenities Fees (SSAF). Currently WA universities are required to provide a minimum of 50% of any student fees to the student guilds. The new legislation removes these protective measures and puts student guilds at risk of losing their ability to effectively function and represent students.

Peter Derbyshire, UWA PSA President and CAPA Western Branch President, says, “We have seen this occur in eastern states universities where the supply of SSAF fees to student run organisations is slowly eroded, until the students can no longer represent themselves effectively. This negatively impacts the student experience.”

Changes to the University of Western Australia governance structures are particularly worrying under the new amendments.

Mr Derbyshire says, “The proposed amendments not only reduce the number of student representatives on the UWA Senate but, in their current form, do not allow postgraduate coursework students to vote for a senate representative at all. This amounts to over 6000 UWA students who are unable to vote on who will represent them on the University’s decision making body.”

“The UWA Senate exists to ensure that UWA is providing a world leading education to its undergraduate and postgraduate students. A strong and representative student voice in the Senate is essential to ensure that UWA is acting in the best interests of the students.”

“Such an oversight is a clear indication of the risks of changing legislation without proper consultation with all stakeholders. It also provides a strong case for keeping elected representation on university governing bodies to ensure such oversights do not occur.”

ENDS

For comment: Peter Derbyshire, UWA PSA President and CAPA Western Branch President, 0435 047 817 / psa@guild.uwa.edu.au

CAPA Media Release- Proposal to Recover Student Debt from Deceased Estates

24 March 2016 – The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) believes that the Federal Government’s plan to recover outstanding HECS debts from the estates of households in the top 50% of the wealth distribution in Australia passes the Government’s earlier test of balancing the budget on the basis of fairness and equity.

We do not demur from the fact that savings have to be found in the upcoming budgetary cycle to address the structural budget deficit caused by personal income tax cuts given to high income earners during the mining boom. High income university graduates received the bulk of these personal income tax cuts and on that basis accumulated large amounts of wealth. This wealth would otherwise be passed on as unearned inheritances. As such, recovering outstanding debts to the taxpayer accrued through the HECS system is a fair and just mechanism of budget repair.

Additionally, the wealth accumulated by high income university graduates is primarily accrued on the basis of the far higher incomes they receive throughout their lives due to their university qualifications obtained with taxpayer support. It is thus fair that the outstanding debts from those qualifications be recovered from the wealth left in the estate of university graduates. As opposed to the other proposed savings in the higher education sector by the government, such as the deeply unfair fee deregulation proposal and proposals to lower the HECS repayment thresholds, this plan has some merit.

We are dismayed that others have immediately rushed to dismiss this proposal with hyperbolic claims rooted in a flawed understanding of the extreme generational inequality in wealth in Australia. However, we do believe that substantive modelling by the Treasury on this proposal should be released immediately, with the assumptions made transparent, so that an understanding of the distributional impacts of the proposal on female led households, among others, are clear prior to the introduction of such a proposal.

“In a fiscally constrained budgetary environment, ensuring that lifetime high wealth households repay their debt to the taxpayer is ultimately a question of intergenerational fairness, and as such, this policy has substantial merit,” said CAPA National President Jim Smith.

ENDS

For comment: Jim Smith, National President, CAPA: 0437 006 605 / president@capa.edu.au

CAPA Media Release- Proposal to Recover Student Debt from Deceased Estates

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) believes that the Federal Government’s plan to recover outstanding HECS debts from the estates of households in the top 50% of the wealth distribution in Australia passes the Government’s earlier test of balancing the budget on the basis of fairness and equity.

We do not demur from the fact that savings have to be found in the upcoming budgetary cycle to address the structural budget deficit caused by personal income tax cuts given to high income earners during the mining boom. High income university graduates received the bulk of these personal income tax cuts and on that basis accumulated large amounts of wealth. This wealth would otherwise be passed on as unearned inheritances. As such, recovering outstanding debts to the taxpayer accrued through the HECS system is a fair and just mechanism of budget repair.

Additionally, the wealth accumulated by high income university graduates is primarily accrued on the basis of the far higher incomes they receive throughout their lives due to their university qualifications obtained with taxpayer support. It is thus fair that the outstanding debts from those qualifications be recovered from the wealth left in the estate of university graduates. As opposed to the other proposed savings in the higher education sector by the government, such as the deeply unfair fee deregulation proposal and proposals to lower the HECS repayment thresholds, this plan has some merit.

We are dismayed that others have immediately rushed to dismiss this proposal with hyperbolic claims rooted in a flawed understanding of the extreme generational inequality in wealth in Australia. However, we do believe that substantive modelling by the Treasury on this proposal should be released immediately, with the assumptions made transparent, so that an understanding of the distributional impacts of the proposal on female led households, among others, are clear prior to the introduction of such a proposal.

“In a fiscally constrained budgetary environment, ensuring that lifetime high wealth households repay their debt to the taxpayer is ultimately a question of intergenerational fairness, and as such, this policy has substantial merit,” said CAPA National President Jim Smith.

ENDS

For comment: Jim Smith, National President, CAPA: 0437 006 605 / president@capa.edu.au