SSAF is for Students!

The University of Tasmania student experience is at crisis point, Tasmanian enrolments are falling, students are being forced to accept an increasingly online experience, and student discontent is at an all-time high.

Challenges include increasing costs of living, housing and rental stress, availability of safe and nutritious food and access to health and wellbeing supports.

At the same time, the connections between students, the faculty and the services people need are being impacted by an increasingly on-line experience.

The Student Services and Amenities Fees (SSAF) are paid by students to provide services that students need to have a positive and supported experience in achieving their student outcomes.

The current state of Student Services and Amenities Fees (SSAF) expenditure at the University of Tasmania, that sees 81 percent of funding placed in University departments, and only 19 percent reflected in funding our student association, the Tasmanian University Student Association (TUSA), which remains the peak body representing students at the University of Tasmania. SSAF funding under student control has decreased from 43 percent in 2012 to just 19 percent in 2023, evidencing the systematic undermining of the student voice.

In other states there is a much higher proportion of SSAF funds that are provided to student associations to undertake this work including universities from Western Australia, Victoria, and Australian Capital Territory.

By its nature, TUSA is accountable to students and is transparent in the allocation and use of SSAF and the way that student money is spent on the improvement of the student experience, student services, and amenities.

Your student petitioners therefore call on the University Council to put student money back in student hands by mandating at least 51 percent of SSAF funding be allocated to the TUSA as the association that represent students at the University of Tasmania.