TAFE student fee hike provokes stopwork

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There will be stop work action this week at Wollongong, Ultimo and Cooma TAFE Colleges to protest fee increases imposed by the NSW Government on TAFE students. More will follow in coming weeks.

The NSW Government announced TAFE student fees will increase by 9% from 2008. This announcement came despite a commitment in 2004 (after introducing fees) that only CPI increases would occur from that point.

The Teachers Federation has lobbied NSW Parliamentarians and made representations to the NSW Minister, John Della Bosca, to remove or reduce the proposed fees. Federation welcomes the announcement today by Mr Della Bosca of a fee rebate for students studying the HSC or TPC (Tertiary Preparation Certificate) at TAFE. We call on the Minister to introduce this rebate for all Certificate III courses (HSC equivalents).

Maree O'Halloran, Federation President, said:

"TAFE teachers are taking this action on behalf of their students because they are angry that fee increases will hurt disadvantaged students and have a negative impact on enrolments. Massive fee increases imposed by the NSW Government in 2004 led to a decline in student enrolments, particularly in rural and regional areas.

TAFE teachers are calling on the Minister, John Della Bosca, to remove the $50 charge that will be imposed upon all low income students from January 2008, to make HSC and equivalent Certificate III courses fee free, and to reconsider and reduce the 9% fee increase proposed for all TAFE fees from January 2008.

Both State and Federal Governments have underfunded TAFE for years. They should not be shifting the cost burden to students."

Stopwork Action

Cooma TAFE 1 November 2007 11.00am

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Last Modified: 30 Oct 2007