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/

Teachers and school support staff working in Queensland Lutheran schools are facing the biggest attack on working rights seen in their sector. A serious question mark hangs over the employment future of employees in Queensland Lutheran schools as their employer remains intent of pushing through a plan of cuts, controls and constraints to the existing working conditions. Some of the cuts the LEQ want to make to their employees’ conditions: - CUTS to Teacher Hours of Duty protections for some teachers - CUTS to key employment protections which ensure procedural fairness and natural justice for all employees LEQ's shameful plan was made very clear when the employer stopped collective bargaining negotiations in early June 2020 with a view to hold a ballot on its substandard agreement for employees. LEQ’s plan will make it far from an employer of choice in the non-government education sector. The move by LEQ to cut, control and constrain current conditions is an affront to Queensland Lutheran teachers and school support staff who have shown the utmost dedication and professionalism over the last few months of the COVID-19 crisis. Learn more about LEQ's plan of cuts, controls & contraints @ www.qieu.asn.au/stopthecuts

The Morrison government's announcement that it will double fees for a series of humanities degrees is one of the worst attacks on students in recent times. Law, economics, management and commerce subjects will face fee hikes that means students could be charged up to $72,500 for a 5 year degree such as Law. The cost of a humanities or communication degree will be more than doubled - increasing by 113% to $14,500 a year. A three year arts degree will now cost approx. $45,000. This is essentially an attempt to abolish the humanities as a serious discipline, and instead restrict its accessibility to only wealthy students. This fee increase deliberately prioritises economically profitable degrees, while decreasing the accessibility of degrees designed to encourage critical thinking about society. Our education should not be subordinate to the needs of industry. The government wants to divide us by granting fee reductions to other students. We reject a two-tiered fee system that attempts to force students into studying what the government deems more important. Students should have the right to study what they want. Cost should never be a barrier when deciding what to study at university, or even if you want to study at all. We need free, fully funded public education, not a user pay model that prioritises particular disciplines or degrees. We are demanding that the government to scrap the proposed fee increases for university degrees. Written by Jazz Breen & Jack Mansell, Sydney University SRC Education Officers

DUSA - Deakin University Student Association is supporting the NTEU - National Tertiary Education Union in a day of action to protest the job cuts at Deakin and to support its workers. Join DUSA in ensuring that students AND workers get the fair and equitable treatment from the university they deserve. #DeakinStudentsFightBack #SaveDeakinJobs

On Monday 25 May, our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Iain Martin, advised Deakin staff that you, our University Council, had endorsed a Restructure/Reshaping Process due to the financial impact of COVID-19. We were advised that Phase 1 of this process would commence within the week. Staff were advised of a proposed immediate reduction of around 400 positions. Professor Martin noted that the Restructure/Reshaping process was in fact endorsed by Council twice – on 7 May, and again on 21 May. We are writing to demand that the Council call a halt to the Phase 1 process and consult with Deakin staff - with full financial disclosure - on how they believe the University can best respond to the current financial crisis. Deakin is a public university so we call on all members of the Deakin community - staff, students, alumni, members of the communities in which Deakin resides and serves, to support staff in calling on University Council to halt to the Phase 1 process.

The petition of certain citizens of the City of Kingston draws to the attention of the Kingston Council that: 1. Don Tatnell Leisure Centre was closed on the 30th of January 2020 due to serious structural issues that made the centre unsafe for use. 2. This facility was used by many of members in the Parkdale, Mordialloc and Mentone community -offering pool, spa and sauna facilities, as well as a gym with local classes and other support services. 3. Don Tatnell is walking distance from Parkdale Secondary College and St John Vianney's Primary School, and accessible to many other local primary and secondary schools in the Mordialloc-Parkdale area. 4. The centre is readily available to our local community via bus from Mordialloc Station. 5. Since its closure, Kingston Council has not committed funding to a redevelopment on its current site and has instead flagged a possible relocation. This would be a huge loss to our local community. 6. The Mayor of Kingston has stated that costs to return the ageing building to a “useable state, without any improvements in service” would incur $9 million in costs and a 10-month closure. Instead, the Mayor says the Council “will focus on developing a new, modern centre that meets the current and future needs of our community.”

Grades received in the second and third years of an Undergraduate degree are normally given double weighting meaning that students currently completing third year subjects are denied the opportunity make improvements to their WAM. Honours degrees must be completed by Semester One to be included in WAM calculations when applying for Medicine, while an ongoing Honours degree counted towards Optometry or Dentistry. As a result of the changes to WAM calculation, Honours at any stage of completion will not be included, for any of the three degrees. Additionally, changes to Honours projects mean that they do not attract sufficient credit points to be included in the University’s broader approach to WAM. Overall, these changes are manifestly unfair and disadvantage students who are able to improve their competitiveness for MDHS applications this month. The University made this decision in the absence of student representatives and has not provided a rationale for how this change benefits students, or why this decision was necessary. It is astonishing that the University of Melbourne has decided to adopt this model given that the same outcomes could have been achieved for students whose results have suffered this semester, by applying the WAM changes announced only a short time ago. Other Australian medical schools have allowed students to receive the benefits of good results in 2020, or have changed their approach since this announcement was made. We call on the University of Melbourne to rescind its decision to ensure WAMs that improve in 2020 can be used.