letter received

from my Uni postgrad association...
seeing as i am postgrad.. i get this...
instead of the whiny yabbery undergrad one..
MUAHHAHAHAHA

anyways..
so the contents are interesting...
and it goes

"at the university council meeting on monday 5 april"... bla bla bla...
basicly, the govt wants to suck more money from students and surprise surprise,
so does the damn uni.

the association "is appalled by these decisions, by the way in which they were made, and by the way the student representatives on the council were treated"

(now that caught my eye)

the association "believes that Higher Education should receive sufficient public funding so that undergraduate and postgraduate courses are free. this can only come about through".. yada yada...

figures appear, comparing how much students pay for the cost of universities compared to US,,, yada yada yada....
(like we all don't already know we are being WAAAAAAAY overcharged for uni)
*rolls eyes*

"In atempting to justify the rise in HECS, Vice-chandellor Kwong Lee Dow is quoted as saying that the increase: '...will be used to improve the University's teaching and learning environment with upgraded library and IT services and facilities in order to maintain the high quality of our coursework programs.'

at XX University, fees for postgraduate students studying full fee courses have risen on average 31% in the last 3 years. It would be interesting to hear from the VC a detailed account of how there has been a 31% increase in teaching and learning quality and in the services and facilities provided to postgrad coursework students over that time"

HEAR HEAR, now that... is an interesting question
*looks to kwong lee dow for another (likely to be)pathetic reply*
we all, know where the money goes...
*whistles*

there was a detailed paper and alternative resolutions against the fees increase and also a peaceful demo.. all of which were of course, IGNORED but the uni.

get this,
here's the most interesting and eyecatching part
"The University, however, behaved despicably towards its democratically-elected student representatives and showed contempt for students in general" (REALLY? like... we all don't know that already *rolls eyes somemore for stating the obvious*
"University administration refused to tell the student members of the Council where the meeting was to be held; they were instructed to wait in a local cafe, then were picked up by a car and driven to a secret location. As soon as they arrived, their mobile phones were confiscated so that they could not communicate with their constituents. The result was that the student protest was directed at the plethora of police and assorted security staff stationed around the campus. Council deliberately avoided having to deal with students' legitimate protests"

*PHEW*
sounds like a regular james bond op man.

sinister things going on behind the uni scenes eh...

so anyways,
my points
a) uni places.. under and postgrad, ought to be available to ALL who deserve it, regardless of ability to puke out moolah on call... as in the US system... which i believe is way waaaaaay ahead of other systems.
b) universities, including the current one i'm at, ought to remember, they are meant to educate, not to squeeze students pockets.
c) universities, including the current one i'm at, ought to remember, they are getting paid from the student's fees. no students, no fees, no pay
d) universities, including the current one i'm at, ought to remember, students have a right to be respected. Not just the professors.
e) professors and lecturers alike ought to remember, no students, no fees, no pay, no professor, no lecturer, no job.

i do personally find, that in the current uni i am at especially, a number of staff forget that they are there primarily to educate. they forget that students are truly important, its a two way street. and they expect things from the students, that are beyond the responsiblities of the student and perhaps in a few cases, completely Unreasonable.

having been on both sides,
teaching and learning,
i can see the imbalance and the worst part?
alot of it is being created by the educators,
i don't see the students are being unreasonable, spoilt and demanding,
they are just fighting to keep their space in the scheme of things,
seeing as..
the fat proffesors' asses are getting fatter
off the pockets of the students and pushing the students out

simple is it not?
respect the students,
we'll respect you back.