I hope you had a great break over the winter.  

Education issues are looming large this year. In first semester students and staff were standing up for better education. The proposed Rudd ‘Education Revolution’ has not started unfortunately, but unions are starting a process for change.

The NTEU staff union joined other unis across Melbourne for a very successful strike and rally in the city on 21 May. Many student activists got involved in the picket lines.

Now, the Vice Chancellor has announced more than 200 more staff cuts, which will only mean intolerable workloads for the staff on whom students rely every day.

Students need staff to win better conditions and be treated well – not overworked because of staff shortages and not underpaid because of budget cuts. GSA has been looking into the problems of class sizes which are a direct result of the growing student/staff ratios. UoM states these have risen to 18.2 in 2008 at this campus, whereas, according to the Bradley Review (published by the government last year), the national figure was 13 students per staff member in 1990.

When there are insufficient staff, students suffer and stress rises. The only way to combat this is to fight for more staff and smaller class sizes. The university will say that the government doesn’t provide sufficient funds, and have accepted a large class environment backed up with better IT facilities. The government will blame the recession. However, UoM has shown it can get funds for real estate and public relations extravaganzas. This financial crisis of the university is linked to the strategy of management, students and staff should not have to shoulder the burden.

NTEU members are meeting at 1pm on Tuesday 4 August in the PLT, Old Arts. Students need to support the action that is decided at that meeting – unity between staff and students will be crucial to defend campus conditions.

Get active in these issues if you can so that, together, we can make a difference. Please contact me with any concerns about your study conditions (my email address: coursework@gsa.unimelb.edu.au), or ring me on 0418 347 374.

Looking forward to working with you in the next semester.  

Judy McVey