UN$W to charge up-front fees
By Helen Jarvis
SYDNEY — The council of the University of NSW decided on June 2 by the slimmest of margins (10 votes to eight) to accept fee-paying local undergraduates from 1998, and so to join the universities of Melbourne and Sydney in further undermining publicly funded higher education.
The decision followed several months of vigorous debate. The faculty of arts voted 50 to 13 against accepting fee-paying local undergraduates, and the same spirit was expressed in the faculty of biological and behavioural sciences.
On the other hand the Faculty of Law voted in favour of the proposal. Other faculties did not meet to consider the issue.
The undergraduate studies committee of the academic board voted 15 to two against the proposal, but its recommendation was not supported by the academic board itself, which, after over two hours of debate, voted 30 to 17 in favour.
The student guild campaigned on the slogan of "Merit not Money Mister Niland", choosing to focus its attack on Vice-Chancellor John Niland rather than on the federal governments funding cuts, unfortunately not joining in the national campaign with NUS.
The UNSW branch of the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union (NTEU) voted strongly against fees, with academics voting 173 to 12 against.
Those opposing fees spoke on the basis of defending what was left of free education, and on the lack of careful accounting as to the actual benefits of the scheme, given that class sizes and pressure on services, such as the library and student facilities, will increase. Further, they pointed to the danger of division in the student body between fee payers and other students.
Those supporting the proposal waxed lyrical on their equal commitment to the principle of free education, but said that they saw no other way to meet UNSWs projected budget deficit in the face of federal budget cuts and refusal to fund the overdue staff salary increases agreed on in enterprise bargaining.
The academic board followed its acceptance of the proposal with a motion to commit the university to a vigorous public campaign in support of the system of publicly funded higher education. [Helen Jarvis is a member of the NTEU at UNSW.]