We are worried about students who are struggling to pay for rent, food and bills, and when Centrelink payments are reduced in October this will only get worse. We are worried about international students and their families who are struggling to pay course fees, and the obvious impacts this will have. Students are suffering and the University’s response to this has been silence. The University needs to act – and it needs to act now.

The Flinders University Student Association (FUSA), is once again calling on Flinders University to provide additional academic support to students during this global health pandemic. While case numbers have decreased in South Australia, many students are still completing the majority of their learning online, have lost their jobs and income, and are about to see a severe reduction in government support. In Semester 1, FUSA was instrumental in campaigning for the academic support changes that allowed many students to continue their studies here at Flinders. Changes such as the Opt-In Non-Graded Pass assessment structure would not have occurred without our campaign and the support of the student body. We understand the stresses of being a student in the best of times, let alone during a global health pandemic, but we need your support to push for these changes. Flinders University can and must do more to support the student community during these unprecedented times. Please share this campaign with your classmates, club and association mates and anyone else you know in the student community to help us fight for your rights and welfare as students.

Mark Latham's Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill 2020 is a dangerous attack to LGBTIQ+ kids and staff. If passed, the Bill will: -prohibit trans and gender diverse content being taught in health and physical education classes. - prohibit teachers from mentioning the existence of LGBTI+ characters, people or events in other subjects like English or History. - prohibit counsellors from giving advice to students on the subject of gender fluidity. - force teachers to refuse to call students by their preferred pronouns. - teachers who do not comply could lose their accreditation and their jobs. - allow parents and guardians to remove their child from any course that mentions sexuality. - force schools to consult with parents and guardians at the start of each year about any course which mentions sexuality (and change the courses accordingly). - legitimise the stigmatization of intersex students. This Bill goes further even than the Religious Discrimination Bill that the Morrison government has waiting in the shadows - which itself would legalise discrimination towards LGBTI+ people in Australia. Latham's Bill goes further as a calculated attempt to erase the very existence of LGBTI+ people and force kids and staff back into the closet. Please share this petition to keep up the fight!

We need to show the University that our voices are important. Sign the petition, and join the fight.

International Students alongside domestic students at Flinders University matter as we continue contributing to enriching the cultural environment, academic fields and economic development of Australia and the world. By supporting International students and standing in solidarity with us, Flinders University not only demonstrates to the State, the country and the world its pioneer and leading responsibility for International communities, but the university will also continue sustaining academically and socially its reputation as the most desirable destination for international students in the world. As an International Students Collective, we need immediate actions to support our fellows and we can do it!

UNSW is set to push 256 FTE (full time equivalent) staff through forced redundancies this year, after hundreds of staff have agreed to take on voluntary redundancies over the past few months. The university is trying to shed 500 FTE positions this year - a whopping 7.5% of total staff. Faculties will be merged down from eight to six. Our tutors, lecturers, demonstrators, admin and support staff are being attacked! Despite boasts from the Public Relations team about a climb in UNSW’s position in international university rankings, the student-to-staff ratio stands at 41:1 according to Times Higher Education. This compares poorly to other Go8 universities and will only get worse with the current massive round of job cuts. Now UNSW management want to cut staff numbers even further! This is on top of the trimester system which has delivered tens of millions in surplus revenue to the institution, the sacking of a third of casual jobs at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, and the implementing of course cuts in T2, including 10% of all Arts courses. With funding cuts at a federal level, our quality of education will continue to be undermined. University management is justifying these massive attacks and job cuts by crying poor and citing their inevitability, as always. This is despite simultaneously committing $1 BILLION to building ANOTHER military campus in Canberra just weeks prior! UNSW has $933 million in cash reserves stashed away, overpaid executive salaries like that of Vice Chancellor Ian Jacobs on a bloated $1 million, as well as extensive assets and investments they could borrow against. Staff are the lifeblood of our education. Throughout this crisis, university staff continue to have bills to pay, families to support, and the need to maintain a roof over their heads. It’s clear the university is financially capable of providing jobs and courses, but they are refusing to. Instead, they want to force the cost of this crisis onto staff and students! The future of our university and our education is on the line. We refuse to accept the logic that staff and students should be forced to pay for the crisis in the university’s profitability, and we need to fight back against these attacks! Shovan Bhattarai, UNSW SRC Education Officer

The University has made clear that it intends to carry out restructuring which will see workers across the University made redundant, and has made no promises to retain casual and fixed-term staff, hundreds of whom have already lost their jobs. Senior management have not made the case that any of these job cuts are necessary and should open up their books so that the university community can see the real extent of the financial crisis. This is key information that staff and union representatives need in order to fully assess any change plans proposed by the University.

Universities have become more and more like corporations than education institutes because of consistent ideological attacks on education under liberal governments. Due to that, there has been an over reliance on international students funding the tertiary education sector. With the COVID19 Crisis shutting down borders, universities are in a significantly difficult place when it comes to running them. The Tertiary education sector is the third largest sector in the country, however we are on the verge of losing hundreds of jobs, just before a major recession, unless the government commits supporting these institutions. We are calling on all of the Liberal/National government, as well as ministers Dan Tehan and Josh Frydenberg to commit to supporting this sector, and supporting Australian Jobs.

We have created a petition seeking to hold RMIT and its management to account for failing to fully engage in an open and transparent way with NTEU members on the current state of and future of RMIT. • We know that RMIT has to change the structures of the University • We know that RMIT is facing a significant loss of income over the next two years • We know RMIT management has opened consultation on volunteering for a redundancy • We know that RMIT is not renewing people’s fixed term contracts • We know RMIT has not reengaged people who were employed as casuals • We know people’s workloads are oppressive. It is our commitment to each other that will see RMIT through this current crisis. We need to be included in discussions for the future of RMIT.

The Australian Education Union understands the importance of TAFE and the education services it offers. TAFE can provide not only education but also opportunity and purpose. TAFE has helped countless apprentices learn their trade, helped immigrants settle into new communities, helped locals advance their careers, helped school leavers find a pathway to employment or further education and offered a fresh start to people who have lost their job. As Victoria looks to rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic, TAFE can play a crucial role in helping those that have lost their job to upskill or learn a new craft so they can move into new roles. Unfortunately, the current financial state of TAFEs means these important institutions and the passionate educators that drive them face an uncertain future. We need the Victorian Government to step in and guarantee that TAFEs will survive the pandemic. We need to save TAFE once and for all.

Changes like these may end up oversaturating the job market in areas such as nursing, where even more students will be left without a job when they graduate. Lowering the cost of tertiary education for some shouldn't come at the cost of access to others - particularly when a fee increase will disproportionately affect low SES and first in family students. For some students, studying maths or science degrees just isn't an option for them due to where they live, their secondary education or physical inaccessibility of STEMM courses. To make them pay more because of reasons out of their control isn't just unfair - it's discriminatory.

1. OUR SKILLS ARE EMPLOYABLE: The government’s assumption that studying arts degrees and subjects does not lead to any ‘employable skills’ is factually wrong. These subjects provide highly transferable skills, such as critical reading, research and analysis skills, problem solving, and writing persuasively for different audiences. 2. OUR SKILLS ARE THE FUTURE: The World Economic Forum says the top three skills for 2020 The Future of Jobs are Complex Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. These are the skills that a broad, liberal education teaches. 3. LIBERAL EDUCATION IS A FOUNDATION OF DEMOCRACY: Healthy democracies need a strong and liberal education system. It’s good for both society and for maintaining a productive, dynamic workforce. A liberal education helps us understand ourselves as a nation, how to navigate our current world as well as how we can learn from our shared human history. 4. STUDYING HISTORY, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY IS A RIGHT OF ALL, REGARDLESS OF WEALTH: Australia has long had a proudly egalitarian tertiary sector, which has allowed students from less advantaged households to benefit from higher education. Why should an arts, social sciences, or legal education or career be only available to the very wealthy? 5. LET'S NOT LEAVE DISADVANTAGED AND DIVERSE COMMUNITIES BEHIND: Less funding is likely to have a particularly damaging effect on teaching programs and the careers of many disadvantaged and diverse communities, including Indigenous communities, regional communities, and women. FOR MORE INFORMATION: News article from The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064 World Economic Forum here: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ And word from the British Academy on arts and social science graduates: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/arts-humanities-and-social-science-graduates-resilient-economic-downturns/