The impact of VSU on Governance, Management and Human Resources in Australian student organisations
Governance changes
The introduction of VSU has brought on or precipitated major changes in the sector in terms of governance. The surveys issued for this study looked at this issue.
In the sport survey organisations were asked in question 10, "Since December 2005, have there been any changes in the governance of your organisation? (for example, if your organisation is governed by a board there may have been changes to the composition of the board such as a reduction in the number of board members etc)"
- 43.6% of respondents answered YES
- 56.4% of respondents answered NO
- EFTSL covered by answers 582,136 (96% of sector)
In the union survey organisations were asked in question 10, "Since December 2005, have there been any changes in the governance of your organisation? (for example, if your organisation is governed by a board there may have been changes to the composition of the board such as a reduction in the number of board members etc)"
- 53.8% of respondents answered YES
- 46.2% of respondents answered NO
- EFTSL covered by answers 363,973 (60% of sector)
Based upon the above responses it is considered that roughly half of the campus services sector has been subject to governance changes post-VSU. Overall there have been material reductions in the extent of student governance over or control of campus services organisations.
Often the governance changes have been initiated to reduce the number of directors on the board overall, to reduce number of student directors in particular, to bring more independent commercial expertise onto the board and in general to become ‘Protocol 10’ compliant under the Howard Government’s national governance protocols for higher education providers.
There is an emerging but as yet unsupported view coming out of this study that post-VSU there has been a noticeable reduction in the number of women in governance roles in those campus services organisations which have been subject to recent governance change.
Management changes
In the sport survey organisations were asked in question 9, "Since December 2005, has there been any significant management restructuring or other major change within your organisation? (other than any change in governance referred to in question 10 below)"
- 51.3% of respondents answered YES
- 48.7% of respondents answered NO
- EFTSL covered by answers 582,136 (96% of sector)
In the union survey organisations were asked in question 9, "Since December 2005, has there been any significant management restructuring or other major change within your organisation? (other than any change in governance referred to in question 10 below)"
- 61.5% of respondents answered YES
- 38.5% of respondents answered NO
- EFTSL covered by answers 363,973 (60% of sector)
Based upon the above responses it is considered that more than half of the campus services sector has been subject to significant management restructuring post-VSU.
For the most part this has been downsizing and measures to increase commercial focus (typically at the expense of the non-revenue generating activities at the student welfare end of the operations).
Human resources impact
The impact of VSU upon human resources in the sporting services area has been, at the overall national level, quite different to the impact on the student unions.
For the sporting services areas the following human resources impact is estimated to have occurred thus far:
- net loss of an estimated 15 full time jobs nationally (less than 4 per cent);
- this loss of full time jobs more than made up by increases in casual and part
time jobs; - net impact on casual or part time employment of students – negligible; and
- post-VSU the Howard Government’s Regional University Sport Funding Programme (RUSFP), which provides $2.5 million annually to assist funding of sporting services staff on regional campuses at 27 universities, has provided a critical lifeline that has materially reduced the number of jobs lost in regional university sporting services areas.
For the student union services areas the following human resources impact is
estimated to have occurred thus far:
- net loss of 369 full time jobs (a 28 per cent reduction for the student union part
of the sector); and - net loss of 1,295 part time or casual jobs (also a 28 per cent reduction for the
student union part of the sector).
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