Australia’s top eight universities have been criticised for supporting new law changes that could grant student-run organisations additional access to millions of dollars in funding.
One senator says more oversight is needed with some student organisations engaged in alleged “anti-semitic campaigns.”
Following the passing of the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024, universities that charge a Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) will be required to provide student-led organisations with a guaranteed share of SSAF revenue of at least 40 percent from January 2025.
A number of universities have raised concerns about the practicality of the policy and its impacts on their operation.
At a Senate inquiry hearing on Sept. 24, Matthew Brown, the deputy CEO of the Group of Eight—a coalition of Australia’s top research-intensive universities—said his organisation generally supported the policy as it aligned with how things worked in practice.
However, he noted that caution needed to be exercised in implementing the policy, as it changed the emphasis of the funding from supporting student services to supporting student organisations.
“We need to be careful with definitions of student-led organisations and safeguards to ensure that the funding is appropriately applied,” he said.
The Criticism
Brown’s remarks drew criticism from Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson, who thought it was an irresponsible approach due to the recent alleged radical actions of some student unions.“What it means in practice is that millions of dollars would go to student-led organisations, some of which are running quite anti-Semitic campaigns,” she said.
Pointing to the example of an Australian National University student who was expelled for supporting Hamas and is currently running for the student association president position after her expulsion got revoked, Henderson questioned the rationality behind Group of Eight’s support for the policy.
“On what basis would you hand over millions of dollars to any student ... or organisation that’s got a pre-determination in relation to certain issues, such as their position on Palestine, which gives rise to very significant safety concerns for Jewish students,” she asked.
“That’s grossly irresponsible because that would funnel millions of dollars into student organisations, which could then determine how it could be used.”
In response, Brown said Group of Eight members had discussed and agreed that each university would have specific safeguards in place for the expenditure of these funds.
However, Henderson pointed out that the legislation did not provide any measure to prevent the money from being misused.
In addition, the Liberal Senator said the amount of funding that would be channelled to student organisations would be quite significant under the legislation.
“The Department of Education, in its submission, has suggested this [SSAF revenue] is around $278 million, [and] 40 percent of that is $111.2 million,” she said.
“We’re talking about millions of dollars going to student-led organisations with no proper safeguards because the bill doesn’t provide for that.”
Region Universities Say New SSAF Funding Scheme Not Practical
Meanwhile, Alec Webb, the CEO of the Regional Universities Network, said the new SSAF funding scheme was impractical for regional universities.“We think that it takes a rather metropolitan-centric view of universities and doesn’t account for differences that occur across Australia’s universities,” he said.
Webb elaborated that regional universities tended to have more part-time students and students of more mature age, which resulted in student bodies lacking the ability to handle funding.
“In principle, we support university students having agency [over the SSAF]. However, we do have concerns about the way this was framed,” he said.
“Some universities don’t have what we deem as appropriately student-led organisations in existence, or have the scale required to implement the policy.”
As such, the CEO said there should be considerations about the professionalism and stability of student organisations in relation to fund management.
Webb also stated that a 40 percent reduction of SSAF funding would negatively impact some regional universities’ ability to deliver necessary student services.
