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Issue No. 206 | 05 December 2003 |
A New Mark for Labor
Interview: Muscling Up Unions: Thinking Pink Bad Boss: Global Bully Unions: National Focus Economics: Friend or Flunkey? History: Young Blood Industrial: Living For Work? International: Fighting Together Poetry: Medicare Plus Blues Review: Human Racing
Contractors Hang Up on Telstra Uni Workers Too Smart For Minister Employer Bullies Vie For �Tony� South Coast Deal to Build Movement TeleTech Safety Rep Vows to Fight On Corporates Urged to Come Clean Engineers Ground Safety System
The Soapbox The Locker Room Politics Parliament
Bob Gould On Kicking The Liberals Out
Labor Council of NSW |
News Uni Workers Too Smart For Minister
The Federal Government had proposed tying over $400 million in funding for higher education to forcing universities to offer individual contracts. Academics feared the move would weaken working conditions at Australia�s universities. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) believes that the final package still contains a number of problems including; - increases in student fees, - academic freedom, and - A lack of adequate funding indexation. "This is a recognition that the Government's requirements had nothing to do with the sustainability and quality of higher education but were driven purely by its ideological industrial relations agenda," says Dr Carolyn Allport, National President of the NTEU. "The Senate's decision is a major loss for the industrial hard liners in the Howard cabinet but represents a major win for universities and their staff who will now be able to negotiate collective agreements without the threat of losing Government funding." The amended package still gives universities the ability to increase student fees for government supported places by up to 25% and expand the number of full fee paying places to 35% of all enrolments. Allport described the fee increases as "a particular threat to the affordability of a quality university education". The NTEU also believes that a failure to include indexation for funding means that cost and prices will eventually erode any future funding. The union is also alarmed at the Federal Education Minister's 'Big Brother' approach to university courses. "The fact that the Minister still retains considerable discretion over which courses will attract government funding threatens both institutional autonomy and academic freedom." The NTEU also slammed the move by employers at Australia's universities, the Australian Vice Chancellors Committee (AVCC), to back the reforms proposed by Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson. "We are extremely disappointed with the AVCC who capitulated to Government pressure and failed to support amendments that would have removed these flaws and enshrined the principles of institutional autonomy and academic freedom into legislation."
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