By Kate Davison and Marcel Cameron
MELBOURNE — Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology council chambers were occupied by angry students on August 12 when the council, which is dominated by representatives of big business, voted narrowly in favour of introducing up-front fees for undergraduates in 1998.
The university's academic board and the board of technical studies both recommended against the introduction of fees. The university management attempted to gain support for the decision by claiming that it will use part of the revenue from fees to fund staff positions. The university will charge full fees for up to 12.5% of students. A four-year engineering degree would cost around $60,000.
RMIT is the ninth university to vote to introduce fees for undergraduates after the federal government voted to allow universities to charge fees for 25% on top of their government/HECS-funded quota of students. Universities which enrol fee paying students in courses without filling the quota will be fined. However, Monash University has already announced that it is willing to pay the fine, which it says is more economically viable than providing the quota places.
A "Festival against fees" was organised by the RMIT student union on August 12, which ended in a spirited march and rally outside the council chambers. Braving wind and rain, students settled in for three hours of chanting, speeches and songs. At 7pm, the council voted in favour of fees — nine to seven, and one abstention.
When student representatives on the council leaned out the window to yell "they voted yes", 30 students stormed into the meeting and demanded that the motion be rescinded. Students planned to lock the door and stay for as long as it took to convince the council to negotiate and perhaps to force them to another vote. However, when security guards arrived, council members were allowed to depart.
Students discussed their course of action while negotiations were conducted with the deputy vice-chancellor (who had made a speedy trip home as soon as he was outside the building). However, he flatly refused to consider the occupation's demands. At 10pm, after much deliberation, the students agreed to leave the building.