An update from the GSA President: February 2024
It’s an exciting part of the year for all students, with a mass of activity, events and opportunities around all our University campuses.
For those new Graduate Students, GSA is the heart of graduate student life, and the peak representative body for all 36,000+ Graduate Students. As your GSA President and Board Chair, I was elected to provide high level direction to the organisation, and to represent our community at the University and National level.
Graduate Student Life can be quite difficult to adjust to, which is why GSA was created in 1994 to cater for our specific social, academic and career needs. This includes dedicated employability programs, events for those with families, student art exhibitions and our prestigious graduate ball.
In February, postgraduate student representative bodies from a group of 8 Universities in Australia, called for urgent reconsideration of proposed reforms to the Temporary Graduate Visa (TGV) or 485 Visa, announced by the Federal Government. We oppose the reduction of the age limit for the TGV from 50 to 35, and we advocate for the grandfathering of these changes to ensure the fair and respectful consideration of current international students.
Likewise, GSA is humbled to announce that on Saturday, the Federal Government launched the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032. GSA worked directly with the Federal Department of Education to provide input on its development, and we look forward to supporting its implementation to protect graduate students.
If you have any questions, my emails are always open at president@gsa.unimelb.edu.au