Parramatta students protest

BY LUKE FOMIATTI

SYDNEY — In the biggest ever protest on the campus, more than 100 students and staff from University of Western Sydney, Parramatta campus marched on the senate inquiry into higher education, which was holding one of its two NSW hearings on the campus. The students were demanding that the opposition parties block the government's education "reforms".

Rally speakers focused on the impact the changes would have on UWS, pointing out that under the proposed new funding arrangements universities like UWS which offered "cheaper" subjects like business, information technology and law, would be getting significantly less funding per student.

As the march reached the venue of the Senate inquiry, a number of senators and UWS Vice-Chancellor Janice Reid came out to address the rally. Reid called on the federal government to "come back with a better deal for the west". She also hinted that the university might be forced to raise tuition fees if the package was passed.

As 225 pages of the government's Higher Education Support Bill 2003 burned, Labor's Kim Carr, Natasha Stott-Despoja from the Democrats and Kerry Nettle from the Greens addressed the demonstration and pledged that their parties would oppose any regressive changes to higher education.

From Green Left Weekly, October 1, 2003.

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From GLW issue 556