Peak student body expresses caution over Flinders University 

Flinders University’s level of commitment towards providing students with on-campus facilities and services has been described as cautious by the National Union of Students (NUS). The NUS emphasises that a vast majority of students believe that the University experience is more than learnt in lectures theatres and tute groups. 

Universities need to provide for extra-curricula activities by supporting students with services such as student run sporting and social clubs and societies. By doing this students are provided opportunities to excel in leadership, sporting prowess, and social engagement in addition to academic opportunities.

The NUS has prepared a ranking of Australian Universities according to the their support for the student experience on campus. This ranking places Flinders University along side Adelaide and Unisa in the concerned category. The reason that Universities are marked as cautious is due to a lack of any major commitment to supporting students at present, the attaching of too many conditions to student services, and the undermining of  the democratic right of students to independent representation. The NUS does however emphasis that generally the Universities they have expressed concern about are moving in the right direction but still have a long way to go.

 Five universities have been condemned by the NUS because they have been behaving in an unacceptable manner and setting out to actively undermine or destroy student organisations on their campuses. NUS cited instances of the withholding of student fees from student organisations, the eviction of student organisations from campus buildings, and the insistence of university control over student organisations as reasons for the condemnation. The NUS condemned universities are;

                • Charles Darwin University

                • Griffith University

                • James Cook University

                • Swinburne University of Technology

                • University of Canberra

The NUS believes that students should be very wary about attending these universities, as they are unlikely to receive the same level of quality service provision and effective support as at other universities.