Ben Cavalli
& Fred Fuentes, Perth

The highest decision making body of academics at University of Western Australia (UWA), the academic board, narrowly voted on August 11 to recommend that the UWA senate reject the current proposal to introduce full-fee paying places.

The final decision on UWA vice-chancellor Alan Robson's proposal will be made by the university senate on August 23. However, the board's decision has placed Robson and the senate in a very difficult position.

Although the board's decision is not binding upon it, the UWA senate has never gone against the board's recommendations on crucial issues such as this. The decision also follows the similar one made earlier this year by the UWA Student Guild.

Under Robson's proposal there would be new full-fee places in courses where costs would not exceed $50,000, the maximum amount available under the HECS-HELP loan scheme introduced by the federal Coalition government. The new places would be made available to students with lower TER scores than those accepted into HECS places.

The UWA's cut off scores are the highest in the country, which has meant students from underfunded public schools are increasingly missing out on getting in. Since 1997, enrolments from government school leavers at the UWA have decreased 8%, while those from private schools have risen 8%.

According to Robson, who addressed a meeting of staff and students on August 11, poorer students who just miss out would have the “choice” of applying for a full-fee paying place. Given students will be able to pay back the loan at the same rate as HECS, plus a 20% “adminstration” charge, Robson argued there would be “no barrier for access related to people's ability to pay”.

Members of the UWA academic board criticised the rationale that would see poorer students pay more as a means of tackling the nation's drastically underfunded education system.

[Ben Cavalli and Fred Fuentes are involved in the UWA Education Action Network and are members of the UWA Resistance Club.]

From Green Left Weekly, August 18, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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