RevolucioN NoW
5th December 2003, 04:41
HIGHER EDUCATION: Federal Government attacks our Universities
We though they would never get away with it, that unholy alliance of Vice Chancellors and Conservative government whom we have fought for many months. However today I woke to hear that Brendon Nelson’s Higher education reforms package had passed through the senate, with the help of four “independent” Senators.
The Liberal government has been pushing these attacks on public education for nearly a year, under the guise of “backing Australia’s future” it has been able to effectively push higher education out of reach for Working and Middle class youth.
The measures pushed through amount to privatisation at gunpoint, with fees increasing by over 25 percent in some of the most popular courses, and over 35 percent of places in all courses to be set aside for up front paying students.
Students studying law and medicine, some of the most popular courses, will pay up to $1606 a year more for their degrees by 2005 (1), increasing prices for these already incredibly overpriced courses.
The Australian vice chancellors committee, in bed with the government from the beginning of the “Nelson Review” gave its support to the initiative after receiving a short term bribe of some 400 million dollars over 5 years. It claimed that "This package goes a long way in tackling both of those problems by the outcomes of the Nelson Review” (2).
The four independent senators who jumped under the sheets at the last moment were swayed after the government put an end to its blatantly union bashing policy of linking the aforementioned 400 million bribe to industrial relations reforms.
We must continue our opposition to this attack on our democratic right to an education; we must call for a scrapping of the whole system of HECS. Free education for all not just the rich!
RevolucioN NoW
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Notes
1. http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0...1%255E2,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8072041%255E2,00.html)
2. http://www.avcc.edu.au/news/public_stateme...media_19_03.htm (http://www.avcc.edu.au/news/public_statements/media_releases/2003/avcc_media_19_03.htm)
We though they would never get away with it, that unholy alliance of Vice Chancellors and Conservative government whom we have fought for many months. However today I woke to hear that Brendon Nelson’s Higher education reforms package had passed through the senate, with the help of four “independent” Senators.
The Liberal government has been pushing these attacks on public education for nearly a year, under the guise of “backing Australia’s future” it has been able to effectively push higher education out of reach for Working and Middle class youth.
The measures pushed through amount to privatisation at gunpoint, with fees increasing by over 25 percent in some of the most popular courses, and over 35 percent of places in all courses to be set aside for up front paying students.
Students studying law and medicine, some of the most popular courses, will pay up to $1606 a year more for their degrees by 2005 (1), increasing prices for these already incredibly overpriced courses.
The Australian vice chancellors committee, in bed with the government from the beginning of the “Nelson Review” gave its support to the initiative after receiving a short term bribe of some 400 million dollars over 5 years. It claimed that "This package goes a long way in tackling both of those problems by the outcomes of the Nelson Review” (2).
The four independent senators who jumped under the sheets at the last moment were swayed after the government put an end to its blatantly union bashing policy of linking the aforementioned 400 million bribe to industrial relations reforms.
We must continue our opposition to this attack on our democratic right to an education; we must call for a scrapping of the whole system of HECS. Free education for all not just the rich!
RevolucioN NoW
---------------------------------------------
Notes
1. http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0...1%255E2,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8072041%255E2,00.html)
2. http://www.avcc.edu.au/news/public_stateme...media_19_03.htm (http://www.avcc.edu.au/news/public_statements/media_releases/2003/avcc_media_19_03.htm)