privatisation of UWA note taking finances

Created by Sandra PIERRE on 09/10/2008

Category: Education
Region: All
Target: randstad

Petition: Against privatisation of UWA?s note-taking financial management:
We, the undersigned, believe that privatising the financial management of an academic service such as note-taking for disabled students within a university is against:
n1) academic integrity: removing the university from the management of the funds provided for the disable students means non-trusting the universities abilities and weakening them.
n2) ethics: disability of students should not provide profits to a private company.
n3) the financial health of the help provided: this privatisation will represent higher costs to the funding bodies (mainly Irish government), and thus potentially less help. We understood that the involved company, called Randstad/Select, will claim per hour including the £14,02 for the note-takers? payment, £24.02 instead of the previous £17,42 claimed by the university.
n4) the functionality of the note-taking system: the introduction of an exterior private company in a service previously provided by the university means a lower understanding of the students and note-takers needs and thus more rigidity, and lower efficiency.
n5) the democracy of work at university: pressure has been applied on disability department staff to refuse any information to the note-takers. Note-takers (in total about 55) have not been provided by a contract with terms and conditions but only by a short application form they are asked to sign. No choice is given to them.
n6) the disabled students rights: the concerned students (about 800 at UWA) are not informed that the funds allocated to them for note-taking (about £140 000 last year) are being transferred to a private company, and the providing of this information is being refused.
Considering these points, we undersigned are AGAINST the transfer, from the university disability department to the private company Randstad/Select, of the financial management of the note-taking for disabled students. Sincerely,
The Undersigned
The signatories: