Tammi Jonas

It's been ages since I last wrote to update you all - my apologies. As is often ironically the case, it's not due to lack of reasons to report, but rather having so many issues to cover that I haven't had time to sit down and write about them... but enough excuses.

Cooperative Housing Campaign
About 20 members of the Student Housing Action Cooperative continue to live at 278 Faraday St. We have been speaking with government and NGO bodies, as well as the Melbourne University Student Union Ltd, about possibilities for sites and funding for cooperative housing in Melbourne and beyond. There is broad support for the model proposed by SHAC, now we simply need a site approved and funded for conversion. After Uni Council on Monday the 20th of October, the Faraday St site actually looks like a very slim possibility, which is a lot better than an ‘absolutely not’. The University would like State government to put up some properties (and so would we in the longer term), but we are suggesting that if the Uni puts one up first they will have more credibility in terms of their own willingness to look after their own students. I am working on a housing campaign page for the UMPA website, which will keep you up to date and teach you more about housing affordability than you might ever have wanted to know. :-)

You can keep up to date with SHAC's activities on their blog, or by making SHAC your friend on Facebook. If you're interested in getting involved in the campaign, contact me on president@umpa.unimelb.edu.au.

International Student Issues
A couple weeks ago I attended the national conference of the National Liaison Committee for International Students (NLC)Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA). Although UMPA would like to see postgraduate representation within NLC strengthened, the conference itself was excellent, with speakers across relevant government and industry bodies (ie DIAC, DEEWR, Austrade, etc). The key issues in the conference were: visa restrictions around enrolment status and work limitations (20 hrs/wk), transport concessions, the housing crisis, safety issues, and appropriate and accurate advice to international students as required by the ESOS Act. in Brisbane – the NLC is the peak body for international students in Australia. I attended the conference Seyda Ozkan, an UMPA councilor-elect fro 2009, and Marion Baillat, the International Students Officer for the Another campaign for transport concessions for international and postgraduate students has commenced across Victoria and NSW, and the interim report from the parliamentary inquiry in research training and research workforce planning included a recommendation to extend the concessions to these groups. Cross your fingers!

The Year of Reviews
Finally, there should be some announcements in December about the recommendations of the Bradley Review of Higher Education and the Cutler Review of Innovation. The recommendations put forward by CAPA called for a 50% increase to APAs and for them to be extended to four years, plus doubing the number of IPRSs, amongst many others. You can see the interim report from the parliamentary inquiry into research training and research workforce planning on the CAPA website.

For those who missed this bit of news, UMPA is becoming the GSA (Graduate Student Association), with a big launch at the start of semester next year - you're all invited!

pax