2024 has been a difficult year for students. We have faced threats to student activism, we have seen some student unions fall into financial disrepair, we have seen some student unions disregard issues relating to sexual assault and harrasment. I wanted to briefly touch upon two of the key issues that will be relevant for University of Melbourne students in 2025: that being the proposed student caps, and the National Student Ombudsman.

In 2024, the Commonwealth Labor Government made a range of changes that will have, or will have, dramatic ramifications for students. One key proposed reform was the proposed student caps that would drastically limit the number of international students able to study in Australia. These actions of the Labor Government against international students have been inexcusable. The Government has shown how little regard it has for students that come from other countries to study in Australia, despite the Labor party being based upon ostensibly ‘progressive’ values. Despite Labor’s proposed international student caps failing to pass the Senate due to opposition from the Greens and the Coalition, Labor is taking alternative means to limit international students. The Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Julian Hill, has signed a new ministerial discretion (ministerial discretion 111) that will slow visa processing for overseas students once a given university has hit 80% of the proposed caps. Despite the caps having failed, they have set a precedent that will presumably cause the caps to be implemented in full, or to a greater extent, depending on whether we have a federal Labor or Coalition government following the next Federal election in 2025. Regardless, the University of Melbourne Student Union will continue to fight to support all students at this university, regardless of what it says on a passport.

One positive outcome for students in 2024 is the National Student Ombudsman. The National Student Ombudsman will be an impartial and independent means of escalating student complaints. The Ombudsman stems from the 2024 Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education. This Action Plan recognises that tertiary education providers have a unique role in driving the social reform needed to address gender based violence. The Ombudsman will allow for all Australian tertiary students, including University of Melbourne students, to escalate complaints about the actions of their university, including, but not limited to, issues regarding sexual assault, harrassment and violence.

The Ombudsman is set to begin taking complaints from the 1st of February 2025, in time for semester one 2025. UMSU is awaiting further information on how the Ombudsman will be structured, but the UMSU Advocacy services will be vital in supporting all students, be they undergraduate, graduate, domestic or international, to ensure that their complaints are heard and brought to justice.