The Anti-VSM campaign, Save our Services, are focusing their campaign on what happened in Australia after compulsory student membership was done away with in 2006.
They have produced a video and images to try and make their point that VSU was 'a disaster' in Australia.
Firstly, it is important to remember that the Australian VSU bill was very different to what is proposed here in New Zealand. The VSU bill in Australia didn't just stop students' associations from collecting membership fees, it also banned the collection of any non-academic services fees by the university, things that fund Health, Counseling and other services here in New Zealand. Under the New Zealand VSM bill, only students' associations' membership fees are affected.
Secondly, rather than focusing on sensational headlines that the media always like to come up with, we decided to look at the actual articles themselves (and remember, these are presumably the best articles they could come up with!):
Uni service costs treble post-VSU
"The cost of playing sport or eating at university cafes had trebled at some institutions since voluntary student unionism (VSU) was enforced."
That's right, it's not welfare and advocacy and other such services that have tripled in cost at 'some' institutions. It's simply that average students now no longer have to pay for the entertainment and subsidise the lunch of a few. Paying for your own lunch instead of getting someone else to pay for you - what a novel idea!
Unis forced to pay as student unions wither
"Membership at one university [RMIT] has slumped to just 2%."
Just to be clear, that means that 98% of students were being forced to join this particular student association against their will before the law change!
"Ballarat University had one of the highest union membership figures nationally (45%)"
And yet, if you provide services that students want - they join!
No actual examples of 'postgrad woes' are given in this article. Some postgraduate student associations simply merged with undergraduate student associations in order to provide services more efficiently and effectively to their members.
Unis and students decry student fee failure
Again, this article has no actual examples of any problems with VSU, it is simply an article about the failure of the Australian Labor government to gain enough support within their government to reintroduce compulsory membership, with quotes from students' associations who are disappointed they won't have millions of dollars of compulsorily acquired fees to spend again.
Poor students must rely on charity
"The student council scrapped its $1500 interest-free loans last year"
Yep, that's right, this particular student association thought it was actually a bank and was providing interest free student loans to their students - a service that has since been cut.
"The Queensland University of Technology student guild has abandoned a special textbook subsidy and halved this year's $10,000 budget for food vouchers used by hundreds of students to buy stocks at supermarkets."
And again, the student association thinks its job is to take your money and give it back to you as a book voucher, or as a food voucher. Surely students could just use their own money to buy these things and save all the administration costs of passing the money through students associations. Never mind that in Australia, the student association subsidy often actually made the products more expensive than in regular shops:
Students in financial hardship can simply obtain help from the government funded welfare system or, as the article points out, approach any one of numerous charities for assistance - leaving student associations to focus on actual tertiary education issues.
