MEDIACOM-RELEASE-EDUCATION-FORUM
EDUCATORS CONDEMN RETURN TO COMPULSORY MEMBERSHIP OF STUDENTS' ASSOCIATIONS
Speaking on behalf of the Education Forum, John Morris, Headmaster of Auckland Grammar School, said proposed changes to
legislation on tertiary students' associations would in effect be a return to compulsory membership.
The legislation announced recently by Trevor Mallard, Minister of Education, would provide that students enrolled in an
institution with voluntary membership may vote to return to compulsory membership if the student body receives a
petition signed by 10 percent of students. Also an existing students' association representing at least 50 percent of
students may vote to do so. Membership fees would be collected automatically by the tertiary provider on behalf of the
association.
"While the details are not entirely clear, the legislation will in effect be a return to the anachronism of compulsory
student membership. Like lots of other associations, tertiary students' associations exist to provide representational
and other services to members. The vast majority of associations are voluntary and legislative compulsion is undesirable
except in exceptional cases, for instance where health or safety is an issue. No basis for exceptional treatment exists
in the case of student associations. To the contrary, higher education should be characterised by individual and
intellectual freedom. Vesting coercive powers in student bodies is totally unwarranted and undemocratic.
"As is the case with other service providers, membership of student associations should rise or fall on the basis of the
quality and cost of their services. Compulsion forces students to join associations whose services they may not want or
whose views they may not share. It is abhorrent that students should be forced to contribute resources to associations
whose views on political or moral issues they may strongly disagree with.
"Compulsion ensures the survival of poorly-run associations offering high cost services. There is no reason to believe
voluntary associations cannot prosper on the basis of quality services which members actually want and at competitive
prices."
ends