A background to 'the system'
Background:
The rampant liberal is right. The fee is a reintroduced fee that applied a few years ago. It covered lots of things you would expect or want your Uni to provide, such as free access to sporting fields/facilities, counseling, child minding, club's, societies as well as a few extras (a minority of which weren't much good).
As student fee covered it, the Uni's didn't.. until the rug was pulled, then all of a sudden many Uni's recognized that these services were important so they picked up some of the tab. It depended on your Uni and allot of the services went to the wall... waiting on the reinstated legislation that took years to come through. Those that did survive have begged borrowed and brown nosed to get buy. Most Uni's offering funding forced drastic changes that happen to mean they have absolute power over them (even though most are run by volunteers).
The Real Deal:
So what's it to me?
It means you should be getting your money's worth. The surviors are leaner and meaner ever... but so are some of the Uni's.
The legislation is just grey enough to leave the ultimate call in the hands of our betters. Typically a board of old men who want a building with there name on it more than an dynamic and functional Uni. A few clicks of the keyboard and magically you have student services without a ONE SINGLE ADDITIONAL DOLLAR SPENT.
Yep, chances are, YOU WILL PROBABLY PAY $263 A YEAR FOR NOTHING .... well if you’re at every second University in the country (ANU and Melbourne are the only Uni's that have so far agreed that they will spend it, or most of it).
But hang on... that's allot of money... say 20,000 students at $263... over 5 million dollars!
How is it done? Well, say you have a Uni Gym, they are open to the public, run at a tidy profit and o-yeah, they let students attend (with a modest discount that doesn't get in the way of a profit). But how much does it cost to run the gym?... lets say 5 million dollars.
Cap in hand, the uni can say in all 'honesty', 'we spend 5 million dollars on sport', which by the way qualifies as a service.
It can be more complicated, but only if your uni is worried about getting put in the spotlight.
Don't worry, they will add it to your student loan, and charge you interest...
So what happens to the money? Well, that gets pilled on the huge profit your uni is already making (what they can't hide or waste they call surplus… that turns into a building with guess who’s name on it).... oh and part will go on bonuses to the senior execs who make budget... after all, more money makes them look more efficient :0)
Conclusion;
Take a closer look yourself, but remember, they have the survivors (including your student reps, ARC, club, guild, society or whoever) hanging by a very thin thread so it's going to take serious Cojohnes to push for what should be legally yours.
Alternately you can switch back to Facebook, after all isn't Uni the place to learn 'the system'?
