What are student associations?
Student associations are incorporated societies, formed under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908. They have the same legal status as any other incorporated society such as a sports club or community group. They are in no way a form of local or national government.
Why do I have to join a student association?
The Education Act allows for membership - either compulsory or voluntary - of tertiary student associations to be determined by a referendum held among students. In most cases, where these votes have been held, membership has become or remained compulsory, meaning that you have to pay a fee to an association before you can study. Where membership is compulsory, institutions will not allow you to enroll unless you have paid a student association fee.
Does the law say membership has to be compulsory?
No, the Education Act allows for a vote to be held to determine whether membership should be compulsory or voluntary. However, we believe that instead of allowing the majority to force the minority into union membership, this should be a decision for you to make yourself, individually.
How much does membership cost?
Membership of compulsory student associations ranges from $80 to $180 per year for a fulltime student, depending on the institution or university. However, this fee is set by the association itself, with no legal limit.
How much does compulsory membership cost New Zealand tertiary students in total?
Due to a lack of transparency and poor record keeping by many associations, it’s difficult to get an accurate figure but it’s estimated that compulsory membership costs tertiary students $14 million a year.
Who pays the fee and who collects it?
Individual students pay the fee along with their tuition fees and course-related costs. The student association levy is added to your enrolment invoice. Approximately half of all students pay their compulsory student association levy through the student loan scheme. The money is collected by the institution and passed to the student association. Compulsory student associations do not directly charge students for membership; the fee is collected by the institution.
What happens to the money?
The money is spent according to a budget which is set at an annual meeting of the association which needs to be attended by a set number of members, usually 50-100. So at the larger institutions, money taken from, say, 15,000 people can be spent according to decisions made by 50 people.
What is the money spent on?
Approximately half of the money taken by compulsory associations is spent on wages for association employees. The remaining money goes to activities such as subsidies to student clubs and sporting activities, membership of national student organisations, such as the New Zealand Union of Student Associations and University Sport New Zealand, payments to association executive members, subsidies to student association-owned media and funding of various political activities.
Do student associations fund non-academic services such as health and counseling, crèches, bars and cafes, and recreation centres?
Each institution is different but in most cases student associations don’t fund these activities. In most institutions these services are funded through ‘student services’ levies collected and controlled by institutions and separate from student association levies.
Institutions generally retain control of these services because they regard them as too important to be left in the hands of student politicians and their political agendas.
Haven’t students voted for compulsory membership in referenda?
As mentioned above, the Education Act allows for votes (referenda) to be held to determine whether membership should be compulsory or voluntary. This is flawed for a three reasons. First, all other New Zealanders can decide on an individual basis whether or not they join an incorporated society; we don’t hold votes to decide whether or not all motorists should join the AA. People are left to decide for themselves.
Second, as the law doesn’t specify a threshold about the level of turnout in referenda, it’s possible for a fraction of students to vote for compulsory membership and have this imposed on all students.
Third, the students who are most motivated to vote in any referenda are those who stand to gain from compulsory membership. These ‘insider’ students tend to come from specific groups, for example politically active students, people involved in student media, and students whose clubs receive funding from compulsory membership. These students support compulsory membership because they believe they get more out of it than they put in and benefit from the collective pool of money taken from all students under compulsory membership.
Isn’t a vote in favour of compulsory membership a case of majority rules, and as such shouldn’t it be respected as a democratic outcome?
‘Majority rules’ is only one aspect of democracy. Democracy incorporates a wide range of values including respect for civil rights and freedom of expression. Justifying compulsory membership on the grounds of majority rules runs the risk of the tyranny of the minority.
People who defend compulsory membership on the grounds that students have voted for it rarely mention the number of students who actually participate in the votes. Most student association votes, including referenda and executive elections, usually involve a minority of students. The law doesn’t specify any threshold for participation in referenda; turnouts rarely exceeded 30 percent of students. Turnouts in executive and presidential elections are typically only 5-10 percent.
Low turnouts work in favour of the ‘insider’ students who support compulsory membership because it makes it easier for them to win votes and gain control of associations and control their resources.
What type of problems does compulsory membership cause?
Fundamentally compulsory membership causes problems because it allows compulsory associations to exist regardless of whether or not they meet the needs and serve the interests of their members.
Compulsory associations receive guaranteed income regardless of how they perform. A compulsory association can waste thousands of dollars, misrepresent the vast majority of its members and its leaders can act like buffoons but members have no way of withdrawing their membership or refusing to pay. Next year they’ll have to pay more money to the association if they want to study. Unlike any other private organisation, compulsory student associations suffer no financial penalty for poor performance. Compulsory membership allows associations to operate without any regard the interests and needs of their individual student members.
All other private organisations – businesses, sports clubs, charities, and other incorporated societies – must meet the needs of their customers or members if they are to survive. Compulsory student associations suffer no financial penalty for poor performance. Compulsory membership allows associations to operate without any regard the interests and needs of their individual student members.
What does freedom of association have to do with student associations?
Above all else, student associations are supposed to represent individual students. However without the right to freedom of association, individual students are forced to become members of groups that may not reflect their personal views, values and opinions.
Why is misrepresentation a problem?
Student politicians stand up in public and claim to speak on behalf of all the members of their compulsory group. Because an organisation can only take one position on any particular issue, students who don’t agree with that position are automatically misrepresented. Many students find themselves in a position where they’re forced to join a group and have someone who claims to speak on their behalf saying things, promoting policies and advocating ideas that the individual student him or herself does not agree with or support.
This misrepresentation violates many students’ right to freedom of speech because their speech is distorted by people claiming to speak on their behalf, and violates their right to freedom of expression because they’re conscripted into groups which express views the individual student does not support.
What about student representation?
Currently compulsory student associations claim to represent all students. In the case of regional compulsory associations this is because all students have been compelled to become members.
However no student has given his or her permission for the association to speak on their behalf. Legitimate representation depends upon permission. When we want someone or some group to represent us or speak on our behalf we give our permission. This can take the form of an agreement, for example when we agree to have a lawyer represent us in a legal matter. When it comes to groups, we give our permission for an organisation – such as a political party or pressure group – to represent us when we agree to become a member.
With compulsory membership of student associations there is no agreement to join. Students have not given their permission, in the form of voluntarily agreeing to become a member. Consequently the representation provided by compulsory associations is illegitimate as it’s not based on the permission of individual members.
The misrepresentation caused by compulsory membership stems from this absence of permission.
Don’t all students have to be members so all students are represented?
This argument is based on the idea that all students have the same views and can therefore be represented by a single organisation. Students are a diverse group; within any one institution you’ll find students who vote for Labour, National, Greens, ACT, NZ First, Destiny, NORML, you name it. You’ll find Christians, atheists, muslims, Buddhists, Exclusive Bretheren. You’ll find deep Greens, libertarians, anarchists, feminists, separatists, racial supremacists. You’ll also find people who don’t strongly identify with any particular worldview. In other words, students, as a group, are just as diverse as the rest of New Zealand.
This is because, after all, students are only people who’ve decided to study. When they enroll they don’t automatically adopt an identical set of views. Given this huge diversity of views, values and opinions it’s impossible for one organisation – even if all students are nominally members – to legitimately claim to speak on behalf of all students.
If students have a range of political views, why are compulsory student associations dominated by left wing views?
Left-leaning students tend to dominate compulsory student associations for a number of reasons. Compulsory associations have traditionally been seen as the territory of the left; consequently, left leaning students, as insiders, are made to feel more welcome within associations. Centre right students are often treated with hostility by insiders. Also, left-leaning students are drawn to associations because their model of politics emphasises the role of collectives and the impact groups can have on changing society. On the other hand, right leaning students are more likely to spend their time at a tertiary institution concentrating on completing their studies so they can move into the workforce.
Who will speak for students if they’re not all members of associations?
With voluntary membership students can still form associations that can represent the interests of their members. However in the absence of compulsory membership these voluntary organisations will have to attract members on the basis of the benefits they offer. These organisations will persuade students of the value of becoming members. This will mean that voluntary organisations will need to be more responsive to the needs of potential and existing members. Voluntary organisations will have to ensure they don’t waste members’ resources or misrepresent their views; if they do so they will run the risk of losing members and losing income.
Voluntary organisations will be able to legitimately speak on behalf of their members because individuals will have given their permission – through agreeing to join – for the organisation to represent them and their views. This situation is not unusual. It’s how thousands of voluntary organisations operate within New Zealand every day.
