Today the federal minister for Education and Training has announced that he will be commissioning a review of Australia’s research training system, to be conducted by the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA).
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) has no confidence that a review commissioned by the minister can lead to improvements in the research training system or indeed a world class research training system.
In the recently announced 2015-16 federal budget the government committed itself to achieving full university fee deregulation by January 1 2016. Part of this higher education and research ‘reform’ agenda included a budgeted $173.7M cut (10% pa) to the Research Training Scheme (RTS) and reforms previously introduced into the parliament proposing that postgraduate students pay an annual fee of up to $3,900 to cover the loss in research training funds.
‘This review of the research training system is concerning’ said the National President Harry Rolf.
‘Despite the minister stating that the review’s main objective is to improve research training, CAPA has severe doubts that recommendations will be implemented should they disagree with the government’s stated deregulation agenda’.
The RTS is the main source of funding provided by the government to universities for training students undertaking a Research Doctorate or Research Masters degree. RTS funds go towards costs ranging from supervisors salaries to lab equipment, office computers and other resources required for the purposes of training. But the scheme is already estimated to be underfunded by an average of 27% per Effective Full Time Student and universities are known to be covering these costs through monies from other sources.
‘The RTS currently does not cover the full cost of research training at a university. If a review must occur its first step or indeed the first step of any initiative focused on improving research training in Australian must be to address this long standing issue’.
‘That a review is overdue or that research training outcomes such as employability need to be assessed are not the issues here. The issue is, how can the minister and this government have the best interests of our research training system in mind while they continue to belligerently pursue an agenda of deregulation and cuts to the RTS?’ concluded Harry Rolf.
ENDS
Harry Rolf | National President | 0431 280 817 | president@capa.edu.au
Caitlin Bruty | Media Officer | 0419 533 297 | media@capa.edu.au
Today the federal minister for Education and Training has announced that he will be commissioning a review of Australia’s research training system, to be conducted by the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA).
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) has no confidence that a review commissioned by the minister can lead to improvements in the research training system or indeed a world class research training system.
In the recently announced 2015-16 federal budget the government committed itself to achieving full university fee deregulation by January 1 2016. Part of this higher education and research ‘reform’ agenda included a budgeted $173.7M cut (10% pa) to the Research Training Scheme (RTS) and reforms previously introduced into the parliament proposing that postgraduate students pay an annual fee of up to $3,900 to cover the loss in research training funds.
‘This review of the research training system is concerning’ said the National President Harry Rolf.
‘Despite the minister stating that the review’s main objective is to improve research training, CAPA has severe doubts that recommendations will be implemented should they disagree with the government’s stated deregulation agenda’.
The RTS is the main source of funding provided by the government to universities for training students undertaking a Research Doctorate or Research Masters degree. RTS funds go towards costs ranging from supervisors salaries to lab equipment, office computers and other resources required for the purposes of training. But the scheme is already estimated to be underfunded by an average of 27% per Effective Full Time Student and universities are known to be covering these costs through monies from other sources.
‘The RTS currently does not cover the full cost of research training at a university. If a review must occur its first step or indeed the first step of any initiative focused on improving research training in Australian must be to address this long standing issue’.
‘That a review is overdue or that research training outcomes such as employability need to be assessed are not the issues here. The issue is, how can the minister and this government have the best interests of our research training system in mind while they continue to belligerently pursue an agenda of deregulation and cuts to the RTS?’ concluded Harry Rolf.
ENDS
Media Contact:
Harry Rolf | National President | 0431 280 817 | president@capa.edu.au
Caitlin Bruty | Media Officer | 0419 533 297 | media@capa.edu.au
Sydney, 13 May 2015 – A devastating blow was delivered to disadvantaged and underprivileged students in last night’s budget.
With cuts geared towards key accessibility schemes, the 2015-16 budget has torn through minority groups across Australia to the deficit of our overall education output.
“Australian universities are slipping down the ranks in international competitiveness. A lack of diversity, innovation and collaboration is going to be to the detriment of our entire higher education sector,” says Vice President (Equity) of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Students (CAPA), Mia Kwok.
Students supported by the Higher Education Participation Program (HEPP) will find $5million stripped from their funding. The program covers people from low socio-economic backgrounds, students with disabilities, ATSI students, and a number of other diverse background with high barriers to entry.
“It would be absolutely devastating to see the barrier to entry rise even further out of the reach of talented students,” Kwok says. “Already around 45% of people with a disability live below the poverty line. What the Abbott Government is asking is for students to take on more debt with less support.”
In conjunction with this is the winding down of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Advisory Council (ATSIHEAC); CAPA has serious concerns for the ongoing diversity and accessibility to higher education.
“There is currently only one Indigenous research student to every one hundred research students,” says President of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Postgraduates Association (NATSIPA) Sharlene Leroy-Dyer.
“This government has shown so little respect for our community. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are bright and driven individuals who are being restricted from participating in the higher education sector. The support needs to be there and it needs to be there now,” Leroy-Dyer says.
ENDS
Mia Kwok | Vice President (Equity) CAPA | 0435 361 697 | vp_equity@capa.edu.au
Caitlin Bruty | Media Officer CAPA | 0419 533 297 | media@capa.edu.au
—
Mia Kwok
Sydney – As the 2015-16 budget looms, Australia’s postgraduate students are becoming increasingly concerned about what the future holds for them.
Today the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations stood alongside students rallying outside the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) who are voicing their distrust in the budget and policy-makers in Canberra.
In the past year, postgraduate students have witnessed:
‘This $646.6M attack on research funding has caused widespread concern among postgraduate students across Australia’ said the National President Harry Rolf.
‘Cuts to research training funds and fees on research degrees have immediate impact on the livelihoods of students and their ability to study at university. Cuts to research funding further reducing the already dwindling pool of university resources dedicated towards research. Most significantly cuts to research mean even less opportunities and pathways into research careers for postgraduate students when they graduate.’
‘We are very concerned about what the budget has in store for both postgraduate students and research, but we are not holding our breath. Today and tomorrow we will continue to make our voices heard’ concluded Harry Rolf.
ENDS
Harry Rolf | National President | 0431 280 817 | president@capa.edu.au
Caitlin Bruty | Media Officer | 0419 533 297 | media@capa.edu.au
Canberra – The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) is dismayed to learn that the government has chosen to continue with the its $173.7M cut to the Research Training Scheme (RTS) in the 2015-16 Federal Budget.
“Cutting the Research Training Scheme by $173.7M and expecting them to foot the bill through a fee on research degrees is a gross undervaluing of this critical human resource. Postgraduate students are more valuable to a university and Australia’s research capacity than the tuition fees they may bring in,” said National President Harry Rolf.
Postgraduate students make up over 50 per cent of the human resources devoted to Research and Development at Australian universities and in some cases they contribute nearly 70 per cent. Universities’ research success depends on the contributions these ‘researchers-in-training’ make.
“A postgraduate student actively contributes to research at a university, they write publications, teach, take on lab duties and participate in many administrative and social activities which benefit the institution. They form a cornerstone of the university research workforce. A cornerstone the government is chipping away at.”
“The governments pursuit of these unfair reforms is damaging the confidence of current and future postgraduate students. Many will be asking themselves the question ‘will the benefits outweigh the costs of doing a research degree at an Australian university and will there be any opportunities for me to pursue a career in research upon graduation’” concluded Harry Rolf.
The government has also belligerently committed to fully deregulating higher education by January 2016, despite its reforms package having been rejected by the Senate on two separate occasions since being introduced into the Parliament in 2014.
ENDS
Harry Rolf | National President | 0431 280 817 | president@capa.edu.au
Caitlin Bruty | Media Officer | 0419 533 297 | media@capa.edu.au
Seven Macquarie University postgraduate students will this week appear in the Supreme Court of New South Wales as defendants in a landmark case, with Macquarie University attempting to forcibly close a solvent voluntary student association for the first time in Australia’s history.
Macquarie University is seeking under the Corporations Act to forcibly wind up the Macquarie University Postgraduate Representative Association (MUPRA), which it argues has been replaced in purpose by a University-created Student Advisory Board.
The seven students listed as defendants are the elected 2014 Executive of MUPRA, which is unincorporated. Two of the students involved in the case are international students.
MUPRA will be represented by Barrister Sebastian Hartford-Davis of Banco Chambers, a former Macquarie Law Society President and Macquarie University medallist, together with solicitors from Piper Alderman.
The elected 2014-15 President of MUPRA, Doug Williamson, who is listed as the second defendant to the case, said that all attempts to negotiate the future of MUPRA with Macquarie University had been unsuccessful.
“MUPRA has sought in good faith to negotiate a mutually agreeable outcome with Macquarie University over several years, but Macquarie’s attitude has been to close any remaining independent student associations on campus, whatever it takes” said Mr Williamson.
“For a University to go to the extent of taking seven of its own students to Court, students who pay to be educated by them and to receive student services, is completely unprecedented. We have been shocked by the lengths to which Macquarie University is prepared to go to end independent student representation on campus” Mr Williamson said.
MUPRA will argue that there is still a need for an independent postgraduate representative association at Macquarie University, citing grievance services, submissions to policy reviews, publications and events as programs they have previously delivered and would seek to continue should Macquarie’s case prove unsuccessful.
“MUPRA’s long-standing services such as the provision of grievance officers, campus and national-level advocacy and the publication of a postgraduate survival guide are all services that are not being met by Macquarie University and are best provided by an independent, elected voice” Mr Williamson said.
“If anything, the decision by Macquarie University to take seven of its own students to Court is a demonstration of the need for independent advocacy and representation, such as that which MUPRA has provided and wishes to continue to provide.”
Macquarie University began legal proceedings to compulsorily wind up MUPRA in August, 2014, following several years of discussions around the fate of the sole remaining independent student association on campus.
Since December 2013, MUPRA has been unable to deliver its usual range of services after its bank account was frozen without explanation by the National Australia Bank, and elected office-bearers were locked out of their campus office by Macquarie University.
MUPRA has operated as a representative organisation of Macquarie postgraduate students since 1996. As part of its case, Macquarie University is attempting to seize over $500,000 in reserves accumulated by MUPRA through student membership fees prior to the introduction of Voluntary Student Unionism. It is also seeking legal costs.
Macquarie postgraduate coursework students pay a compulsory Student Services and Amenities Fee contribution of $286 per year, which is supposed to fund a range of services including “advocating students’ interests”.
Macquarie University v MUPRA will be heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Thursday May 7 and Friday May 8, 10am to 4pm.
Mia Kwok, Macquarie Postgraduate and Vice President (Equity) of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations vp_equity@capa.edu.au / 0435 361 697
Meghan Hopper, Immediate Past President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations higherworksau@gmail.com / 0421 807 303
Facebook: /students4mupra
Twitter: @teamMUPRA
The legal team representing seven Macquarie University postgraduate students who will this week appear in the Supreme Court of NSW as defendants against their own University, has described the case as “a first” and “unique”, noting that an Australian Court has never before been asked to compulsorily wind up an unincorporated, solvent student organisation.
“This case is unique. It is the first case in which a University has sought compulsorily to wind up an unincorporated student association, much less one having substantial assets. It is the first time since 1904 that a Court has been asked to wind up a voluntary association using its inherent jurisdiction” argues the final submission by the Macquarie University Postgraduate Representative Association (MUPRA) and its seven 2014 Executive members, prepared by Barrister, Sebastian Hartford-Davis of Banco Chambers.
“(T)here is no reported decision in which a voluntary association, including a student association operating at a University, has been dissolved otherwise than at the initiative of a member or a creditor” the submission goes on to say.
Macquarie student and Vice President (Equity) of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, Mia Kwok said the case could set a worrying precedent for student unions.
“We’ve never seen a University use the Courts to try to wind up an operational, solvent student association in this way before” Ms Kwok said.
“Many student unions are concerned that this is the tip of the iceberg and that, if Macquarie is successful, other Universities will view this case as a precedent allowing them to close their own student unions” said Ms Kwok.
Macquarie University began legal proceedings to compulsorily wind up MUPRA in August, 2014, following several years of discussions around the fate of the sole remaining independent student association on campus.
MUPRA has operated as a representative organisation of Macquarie postgraduate students since 1996.
As part of its case, Macquarie University is attempting to seize over $500,000 in reserves accumulated by MUPRA through student membership fees prior to the introduction of Voluntary Student Unionism.
Macquarie University v MUPRA will be heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Thursday May 7 and Friday May 8, 10am to 4pm.
Mia Kwok, Macquarie Postgraduate and Vice President (Equity) of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations vp_equity@capa.edu.au / 0435 361 697
Meghan Hopper, Immediate Past President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations higherworksau@gmail.com / 0421 807 303
Facebook: /students4mupra
Twitter: @teamMUPRA
