By Sean Healy
MELBOURNE — Attended by more than 100 people from across Australia, a national education conference, organised jointly by the Student Unionism Network and the National Union of Students, was held here on November 29-30.
In addition to discussing the issues facing higher education, the conference was able to set down some plans for the education campaign in 1998. The conference was generally marked by a very constructive approach from all involved.
The first day was devoted to discussing the issues. A session analysing the recently released West review of higher education attracted a lot of interest.
The West committee's practical proposals include deregulating the market for fee-paying places for undergraduates, allowing universities to charge whatever fee they deem appropriate and changing funding from direct grants to universities to "learning accounts" granted to individual students.
NUS national education officer Jackie Lynch and NUS research officer Simon Kent both argued that such proposals, rather than allowing wider "choice", would increase the differences between poor and rich students and between poor and rich universities.
Discussion also focused on how the West proposals for funding fit into the deregulation and privatisation of education; students couldn't simply oppose the review's proposals, but also had to oppose the total "vision".
The final version of the committee's report is due to be released in early April. A national response by student activists and student organisations will be a major priority.
The afternoon session dealt with other issues affecting access to higher education, including the damage the introduction of the common youth allowance will do, and obstacles in the way of Aboriginal and women students. Workshops took up specific aspects of the government's higher education agenda.
The second day focused on fighting the privatisation of education. A panel featured activists from University of Western Sydney, University of Queensland and RMIT, who covered their experiences in campaigning in 1997. All demonstrated the need for strong on-campus campaigns against decisions by local administrations to introduce fees and cut services, departments and staff.
Ruth Ratcliffe, a Resistance activist at UQ, also addressed the need for the campaign to have a clear strategy on a national level, putting forward proposals for national days of action in early 1998 and for the formation of a coalition to fight the privatisation of education.
Julie Wells, a national research officer for the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union, described the plans decided on by a recent NTEU national council meeting for its campaign in 1998.
The NTEU campaign emphasises a coherent national strategy to apply maximum pressure to the federal government. This includes targeting marginal seats in the run-up to the next federal elections, the possibility of advertisements on television and in major national newspapers and a national day-long strike in conjunction with actions called by the National Union of Students.
The final plenary session adopted a strategy paper moved by Resistance, which combined campaigning on campus with strong national action. The proposal includes national days of student action (April 2 and May 5), the formation of a national Coalition for Public Education and a national Charter for Public Education.
This motion will be taken to the national conference of the National Union of Students, beginning on December 8.
Other motions passed by the final session included support for high school students' organising, recognising the importance of campaigning against the common youth allowance and improving relations between student organisations and the NTEU (and with trade unions generally).