National Education Conference

MELBOURNE — More than 100 activists attended the National Education Conference on December 4 and 5, organised by Melbourne Student Unionism Network (SUN) and endorsed by the National Union of Students (NUS). The meeting debated student responses to the federal government's reintroduction of tertiary tuition fees and how campaign against voluntary student unionism (VSU). This is the first year student organisations have had to confront anti-student unionism legislation, introduced by state Liberal governments in WA and Victoria in late 1994. The debate heated up around the demands and methods of the anti-VSU campaign, the nature of the federal government's Student Organisation Support scheme, what attitude activists should take to funding agreements in Victoria, and how student activists should relate to NUS. It was agreed that a national day of action against fees and VSU should be called before the federal election, and a national student sit-in sometime afterwards. The meeting agreed to publish a national activists' newsletter, and to convene another national education conference in Perth in July, 1996. The conference also adopted a multi-pronged strategy against VSU which includes an information campaign on the theme "Student control of student affairs" and a charter on students' right to organise. NUS' performance and lack of accountability also came in for criticism. In particular, people were angry at NUS' barriers to broad student participation; registration at its national conference at Monash University's Gippsland Campus from December 10 is $500.