Why students need to fight
Page 16
Not The University of Sydney
The no-bullshit guide
Students have a lot of challenges to face in the 2017. Australian universities are in a major funding crisis, fees for both domestic and international students increase year-in, year-out, and financial support for students has stagnated for more than twenty years, writes the Education Action Group. The Liberal government’s plan for this miserable state of affairs is simply to intensify it, and they have a firm friend in the Vice-Chancellors (or VCs) of each ‘Group of Eight’ university. Education activists have fought hard for the past four years to stop the situation getting worse, but the profit motive infects higher education like any other industry.
Nationwide demonstrations have been called for March 22; all major cities and campuses will take to the streets to stop Turnbull’s plot to make us pay more. In Sydney it’ll be right on our campus. Lock it into your diary, March 22. If you’ve got a class on, the staff union will make sure you aren’t penalised for skipping it. No one ever made the history books by going to class!
Don’t think of the University of Sydney as a ‘community of scholars’. Think of it instead like Apple or Nestlé; it has been gradually transformed into a ‘degree factory’ — we are the customers and the Vice-Chancellors drive staff to churn out the product of ‘knowledge’. Check out the graphic we made on the opposite page – that’s what the University is trying to do to our education. It’s our job to stop them.
And if you’re serious about student rights, you should join the Education Action Group (EAG) on Facebook. We organise all rallies and similar actions that happen on campus. Like our Facebook page – Sydney University Education Action Group – or email the Education Officers at education.officers@src.usyd.edu.au to get involved. See you on March 22 to Make Education Free Again!
We’ve fought to save our staff, protect Sydney College of the Arts, and protect the quality of our University...
We organise collectively – we show solidarity with students across the world, and fight for all our rights (and paint banners too)...
And we’ve even helped disrupt Q&A! Join us in 2017.