Union Slams Student Voucher Experiment
The largest general staff union in Australian universities, the CPSU, today urged the Federal government to reject recommendations by the Bradley Review of Higher Education for the introduction of a student voucher experiment.
"We welcome the Bradley Review recommendation for billions of dollars of additional public government funding and the establishment of a National Tertiary Education Regulatory Body. But a student voucher system will undermine those welcome initiatives" the National Secretary of the CPSU, David Carey, said today.
"No country has now or ever used a student voucher system. This is a proposal for a market experiment."
"The real problems with higher education are not the portability of student learning entitlements, or the transferability of the funding of those places for students."
He said, "The most pressing need is to reverse 10 years of underfunding and real decreases in public funding under the Howard government and the succession of Federal education ministers like Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop."
"Uncertainty of funding over the last 10 years and the decrease in funding has led to the increasing casualisation of teaching and non-teaching staff. As universities did not know how long they would be funded for courses and projects, staff were engaged on a short term or casual basis."
"You can't keep quality education under staff conditions like this. Australian universities are suffering and so is the standard of education for students."
"The higher education system should be seen as a national resource in the interest of Australia, not a series of competing, market-driven, semi- private organisations."
"The government should reject submissions by self-interested elite organisations who are touting a market driven approach."
"The Higher Education System should be run publicly with quality, standards, administration, planning, and plans for funding the system, being centralised and integrated with other education providers, and the vocational education and training system."
"A national approach to the restoration of a fully funded higher education system through a National Planning and Funding Commission should be re-established."
"Fiddling with discredited student funding schemes, like vouchers is a ridiculous and irresponsible frolic. The system needs a quantum leap in government funding to recover from the billions of dollars of underfunding under the Howard government."
The CPSU is the union representing tens of thousands non-teaching, or general staff, in all states' Public Universities.
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