Open Universities Students Association
Making Your Experience Better...
Welcome to our News page. Firstly, some exciting news for OUSA and its members. Since January 2008, we are completely independent. Formerly, we relied on funding from OUA via Monash Uni. for our day to day running, whereas now we have the challenge of self-funding. Also we were bogged down with the politics of a volunteer Association needing to meet regularly to decide even the smallest matters, whereas now we have an exciting new management team that can concentrate on student services and issues.
New website for OUSA One of the first benefits of privatisation is this website launched Jan. 2008, with full editorial control, and an exciting new electronic monthly newsletter for all of our members. There will be a whole range of new features we will be revealing as the year moves on, so stay tuned.
Cisco Comms. system OUSA has entered a giveaway competition of a $50,000 Cisco communications system. There are ten to be won and the winners are to be announced soon, so we will keep you posted, as this would be a tremendous boost to OUSA services and inter-personnel communications.
VSU under revision Of interest to all students is the news that voluntary student unionism (VSU) will be at the top of the agenda when the National Union of Students meets with federal ministers soon. Union president, Mr Angus McFarland will be urging "the Government to review the controversial legislation (VSU) when he meets with Education Minister Julia Gillard and Youth Minister Kate Ellis." This was mentioned in a recent article in the Mercury newspaper dated Monday January 14th, 2008. The article quoted Mr McFarland as saying, "..there had been a massive decline in student services, particularly at regional centres." and also that, "In this first wave of VSU effects we are seeing a massive decline in services from child care, book shops and welfare advice." We will keep you posted on this as more news comes to hand...
More on VSU..Recently reported in the Sunday Telegraph, Feb. 10th, under the heading, Students to Lobby: After 12 years of being silenced by the previous federal government, tertiary students are now gearing to finally have their voices heard. National Union of Student's president Angus McFarland will visit Canberra this week to schedule meetings with members of the Rudd Government. High on the agenda for debate are reforming the HECS system, repealing voluntary student-unionism legislation and abolishing full-fee-paying degrees. "The new Government is showing signs it's going to respect the voice of young people," Mr McFarland said.
The latest on VSU...in the Sunday Telegraph,Feb 24th, under the heading, 'Pay your Union Fee with Loan', Uni students could soon be using a HECS-style loan system to pay their union fees. Whilst The Rudd Government "..has ruled out re-introducing compulsory union fees.".. Angus McFarland, President of the National Union of Students, said other options involved the government funding all student organisations or a combination of two models whereby Universities and students pay for certain services while taxpayers fund the rest. He went on to say, "..VSU has to be scrapped entirely and replaced with a new system to protect the important work of student organisations. Kate Ellis, Minister for Youth said while the government did not want to re-institute compulsory membership of student unions, the government wanted "..to ensure that there are appropriate services and representation on our campuses."
More to come...
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