The Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) is concerned by today's release of the Discussion Paper - Voluntary Student Unionism Transition Fund for Sporting and Recreational Facilities.
AVCC Chief Executive Officer John Mullarvey said that the discussion paper is not broad enough as it only supports monies from the $80 million transition fund to go towards university sport and recreational facilities.
"Sporting and recreational facilities are not the only essential services on university campuses that will be affected by the introduction of changes under Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Abolition of Compulsory Up-front Student Union Fees) Bill 2005 which will come into effect in July this year," Mr Mullarvey said.
"A full range of essential services needs to be assisted by the fund. These include health and dental services; computing and library services; welfare services and child care facilities; sporting facilities and clubs; international student services; and student representation.
"We need to look after university students using a holistic approach and sport and recreation facilities are only part of the picture," he said.
"The AVCC will be making a strong case to the Minister, Julie Bishop to review the proposed parameters of the fund to ensure that student services for health and welfare are not over looked," Mr Mullarvey said.
The AVCC would also like to see the funds allocated in one round to encourage effective forward planning by universities and student groups.
The AVCC will lobby the Minister to review the approach as outlined in the Discussion Paper with the view to adopting the following principles for the Transition Fund:
the fund should be distributed across all universities since each university had previously relied on student services charges to cover the provision of various services for students;
the fund should be allocated in one round to encourage effective forward planning and to reduce the administrative cost to universities and to the Department of Education, Science and Training;
the funds should be allocated to universities not to particular student bodies to ensure that the funding is used in the most effective way for each university's students;
the funds should be used to support student services, facilities and amenities but would not be used to support student political activities; and
the program should be kept as simple as possible consistent with its purpose of offsetting the immediate impact of the changes to the Act.
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