University of New South Wales (UNSW) ISSE

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University of New South Wales

Sydney, NSW

Australia

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Australia: Students boycott farcical NUS “Day of Action”

April 2, 2010 by

The National Union of Students (NUS), the umbrella organisation for student unions across Australia, held a “National Day of Action” on March 31, ostensibly over the high cost of rental housing and the lack of adequate financial support for students.

Few political actions in recent memory have been as unserious and badly organised as this one. The protests were only announced a week in advance and were hardly promoted. The venues in New South Wales and South Australia were not even publicly advertised on the NUS or student union websites. Apart from a dozen or so NUS office holders, barely 30 students took part in the “rally” in Sydney and even fewer participated in a protest in Melbourne. At regional campuses like the University of Newcastle, nothing took place at all.

Australia: TAFE teachers challenge Labor’s education reforms, defying strike ban

February 11, 2010 by

More than 3,000 Technical and Further Education (TAFE) teachers attended a stop-work meeting yesterday—the largest in more than a decade—at Sydney Town Hall. The action formed part of a 24-hour strike by the TAFE education sector’s 10,000-strong workforce across the Australian state of New South Wales. Teachers are opposing a new award being enforced by the state Labor government of Premier Kristina Keneally.

Opposition to Labor’s education reforms is mounting, but the New South Wales Teachers Federation (NSWTF) and Unions NSW are working to head off a direct political struggle against the state and federal Labor governments. The NSWTF is calling for a “negotiated settlement” with Premier Keneally, even as her government makes clear it will press ahead with a series of sweeping attacks across the TAFE and public school sectors.

Australian academics’strike at UNSW: a few observations from the ISSE

September 18, 2009 by

Academics and general staff at the University of New South Wales went on strike last Wednesday as part of the National Tertiary Education Union’s “National Day of Action”. Members of the International Students for Social Equality—which has a club on campus—visited the picket lines and spoke to strikers.

Staff are opposing restructuring plans by university management. If implemented, these will see class sizes increase (even further), with lecturers taking on extra teaching and administration responsibilities, all with zero additional funding. Faculties are already chronically under-resourced. The restructuring also involves an erosion of academic tenure in favour of individual contracts.

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Australia: University staff strike for “day of action”

September 16, 2009 by

Members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) at 16 universities stopped work yesterday to fight increased workloads, a blow-out in class sizes, casualisation and other attacks on jobs and conditions, which are being driven by the Rudd Labor government’s misnamed “Education Revolution”.

Nationally, thousands of academics and general staff joined the “day of action” protesting the gutting and ongoing commercialisation of tertiary education. But the NTEU is blocking any struggle by university staff against the Rudd government’s agenda. It is seeking separate industrial agreements on a university-by-university basis whose central aim is to enforce Labor’s pro-market assault on public education.

Australia: University staff strike for “day of action”

September 16, 2009 by

Australia: International students protest lack of access to student concession cards

September 4, 2009 by

Students in Melbourne

Hundreds of students protested in Australia’s largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, on Wednesday to demand that international students be granted concession cards. At present international students are required to pay full fares on public transport—about twice as much as local students pay.

Students from Australia and overseas—about 200 in Melbourne and 300 in Sydney—rallied to demand an end to discrimination over access to public transport. That many international students participated was significant, because they are among the most vulnerable sections of the student body and subject to strict visa requirements relating to their study and work practices. If breached, these can result in deportation. Their attendance points to growing dissatisfaction and anger over their treatment as “cash cows” for the education industry.

In Melbourne the majority of students came from private colleges, such as the Hales, Gurkha, Holmes and Lonsdale institutes. Others attended from public universities, including the University of Melbourne. Students marched from the State Library—briefly blocking trams at the Bourke and Swanston streets intersection to hear speeches and chants—before arriving at the state parliament. In Sydney students from the University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, Macquarie and Newcastle universities gathered at the University of Technology in central Sydney before marching to state parliament, where officials and organisers delivered speeches.

University of New South Wales (UNSW) ISSE

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Australia: Students boycott farcical NUS “Day of Action”

Australia: TAFE teachers challenge Labor’s education reforms, defying strike ban

Australian academics’strike at UNSW: a few observations from the ISSE

Australia: University staff strike for “day of action”

Australia: University staff strike for “day of action”

Australia: International students protest lack of access to student concession cards

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