By Ben Ross
"Capitalism needs the university as it needs the working class, but the university, like the working class, does not need capitalism." — Santiago Carrillo.
The reorganisation of the Australian education system over the last decade is directly related to the reordering of the capitalist world system. The contradictions inherent in that reordering are often also displayed in the higher education sphere.
If education has been expanded in the 20th century to the point where it is no longer the exclusive terrain of entrenched privilege — the sub-aristocratic Australian elite — this has not so much been in response to the demands for participation of those excluded, but rather to serve the technical requirements of technocratic capitalism.
In the '80s a concerted attempt was made at restructuring education so as to have it fit more closely these requirements — that is, the narrow sectional interests of private capital.
In a 1989 joint communication, the associations representing the vice-chancellors and directors of post-secondary education institutions informed the Department of Employment, Education and Training that they were "currently discussing with the Business Council of Australia how cooperation ... might become more effective", with a view to working for "cooperative education" — cooperation between the owners of business and education.
This letter continues (reassuringly?) that "There are of course other organisations representing interests wider than those covered by the BCA which should be involved". It turns out, however, that the only example given, described as "perhaps the most obvious", is the Confederation of Australian Industry.
So what is the technocratic vision for education? One strong tendency in Australian society is pushing for further expansion of the education sphere, embodying the belief of the corporate and technocratic elite that this will help maintain profit levels and boost the downwardly mobile capitalist economy of Australia.
The Australian elite unfortunately then face the most evident contradiction of contemporary liberal democracy: the unwillingness/inability of the government to institute progressive taxation so as to gain sufficient revenue to fund such an expansion. Though current power relations and ideologies prevent taxing the corporate sector or the rich generally, the elite are willing to consider other means — the other means usually amounting to one or another form of "user pays".
These schemes — such as the current loans scheme proposals being discussed by the ALP — actually punish the disadvantaged and oppressed for daring to participate in education. These schemes are ironically portrayed as means to fund increased places. In terms of access, though, the effects of such measures on the demographics of suggest precisely the opposite.
If the student movement is to confront these changes and the elitism implied by them, it must first of all build itself. Only mass participation in the campaign for a free public and accessible education can offer hope of defeating these regressive moves.
The newly formed Cross-Campus Education Network is beginning to confront these questions, and is working towards the NUS National Day of Action on March 26, when large rallies should be held in all capital cities. For the student movement to advance it must also confront the realities of technocratic capitalism. A chant of more places, more funds is necessary but insufficient: students need an analysis of where the money should come from, and in the long run an agenda for what education should be for and who it should serve.
To finish, I will emphasise a point made by NUS policy: though the education system in itself must be changed, only fundamental changes to society as a whole will bring about an education system which genuinely serves the people.
[Ben Ross is president of NUS Victoria.]