New Zealand Union of Students' Associations

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The New Zealand Union of Students' Associations (NZUSA) is a representative body that advocates for the interests of tertiary students in New Zealand. It has 14 member students associations, with a combined membership of over 180,000 students. Until 2006 it was known as the New Zealand University Students Association.

[edit] History

The organisation was founded in 1929 as the New Zealand National Union of Students, and initially focussed its activities on sporting and social concerns. It changed its name to the New Zealand University Students Association in 1935, and over time gave greater focus to issues concerning student welfare, such as student access to healthcare. It developed a strong involvement in social issues during the 1960s and 1970s, opposing the Vietnam War, Aparthied, and racial immigration policies, as well as supporting homosexual law reform.

The association has a long history of opposing NZ Government policies it viewed as not in the interests of students. During the 1990's and 2000's the New Zealand government and New Zealand universities made large increases in fees for students, and limited access to allowances for study. These changes attracted much criticism from the NZUSA.

[edit] Current activities

In the 2005 New Zealand general election the organisation came out strongly in favour of the policies of the parties which it considered to support students the most. These were the 0% Student Loan Interest policy by the Labour Party and Universal Student Allowances policy supported by many minor parties, including the Greens, NZ First and United Future. The current New Zealand Government has introduced the 0% student loan interest policy, but the organisation continues to campaign against decreasing access to student allowances.

In 2006 the Co-Presidents were Joseph Randall and Conor Roberts, both formerly Vice Presidents of the Auckland University Students' Association. The National Women's Rights Officer (NWRO) was Jennifer Jones, formerly Education Vice President of the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association

The organisation changed its name from the New Zealand University Students Association on July the 4th 2006, to better reflect the fact it represents students at a variety of types of tertiary education institutions.

The Tertiary Women's Focus Group (TWFG) is a directive sub-group of NZUSA that is made up of women in students associations and coordinated the national thursdays in black campaign.