The NSW Government has issued an ultimatum and pulled funding from the Council of International Students Australia (CISA) for this year and 2022 due to frustrations over CISA’s lagging progress on constitutional reforms and deteriorated relationship with member student unions.
In an email from Study NSW — an agency within the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade tasked with overseeing international student initiatives under Investment NSW — obtained under freedom of information laws, Associate Director (Policy and Student Programs) Nate Henderson warned former CISA National President Oscar Ong, and the organisation, that the government will “establish our own international student body” if CISA failed to provide details on how to remedy serious structural and managerial issues.
“At this stage we are not seeing value as it [CISA] does not adequately reflect the NSW international student voice. I would like to ask you to provide me, by the end of the year, with details on how you can immediately improve in CISA the NSW international student voice in a meaningful way. Otherwise in January I will be starting a process to establish our own international student body, and replace our positions currently held by CISA with the new body,” Henderson said.
“I appreciate a lot has gone on [in] CISA in the past year, but we have not seen signs that the situation is improving, nor have we had good communication or visibility on this process. I recognise your efforts to improve CISA, and I am hopeful that it can be resolved. But I must also ensure that our Board and other committees have a true NSW international student voice and that is my top priority.”
Following the ultimatum, Henderson and current CISA National President Yeganeh Soltanpour had a call in January 2023.
In a subsequent email sent by Henderson to CISA on 9 January 2023, Study NSW said that it has commenced the creation of an international student committee separate to CISA and anticipates that CISA’s seat on the government’s board will be discontinued:
“We are continuing to develop a NSW international student committee separate from CISA and do not foresee that CISA will be able to maintain a position on our board. We remain open to discussions with CISA to understand how the constitutional changes might offer opportunities for sustainable collaboration.”
Honi understands that part of the dispute between the two organisations is over changes requested by the government to CISA’s constitution. One former executive of CISA, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Honi that poor governance and declining membership was a key flashpoint between the government and CISA.
“Study NSW demanded CISA to increase the number of members and member engagement. If not, they would withdraw funding,” the former executive said.
They are also concerned about CISA’s democratic structure, as with little to no communications with member student unions, CISA’s positions risk being stacked by current executives leaving members with very little say over the body’s future.
According to receipts released by the government, Investment NSW spent a combined $46,915 between 2020 and 2021 on CISA. No money was spent on CISA for 2022 and so far in 2023. This confirms a leaked email in March seen by Honi where Investment NSW told a third party that it has “not funded CISA this financial year” due to a lack of progress on requested changes to CISA’s governance.
In addition to funding from Study NSW, CISA receives funding from other states’ counterparts of Study NSW (‘study cluster’) in the mainland states of Australia and $440 membership fees from a number of student unions.
Grievances from member unions over CISA leading to disaffiliation
Honi can confirm that at least five student unions have broken away from CISA during Oscar Ong’s presidency: Sydney University Postgraduate Students’ Association (SUPRA), University of Technology Sydney Students’ Association (UTSSA), the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University of Melbourne Students’ Union International and Graduate Students’ Association.
Both UTSSA and NUS cited major disagreements with former President Oscar Ong’s conservative leadership as the reason behind disaffiliating from CISA.
Meanwhile, the University of Melbourne Students’ Union International (UMSU) disaffiliated from CISA following a “sense of misrepresentation by the CISA executive board” with UMSU’s name “still being used” by CISA on its website. The organisation cited serious grievances with CISA’s election process where despite being “informed” that a student nominee was representing UMSU International, the union never had contact with the person.
“This became fundamentally clear, closer to their elections when despite us wanting membership and providing all the [sic] necessary paperwork, there was a deliberate delay in the provision of the membership,” said UMSU International.
Archival records of CISA’s now-defunct website as of June 2023 shows that CISA persisted in using UMSU International’s and disaffiliated members’ names in its member list.
Other student unions who have not disaffiliated said that they feel ignored and left in the dark by CISA’s lack of communication. This is the case for Griffith University Postgraduate Students’ Association (GUPSA) who has not heard from CISA since May 2022 and did not receive any response despite sending an invoice request in June last year.
“We’ve heard nothing again from CISA about renewing our affiliation or any other CISA matters, that’s very concerning as GUPSA has been affiliated with CISA for many years and GUPSA members have been office bearers in CISA in the years prior to COVID too,” GUPSA Support and Events Coordinator Michael Carden told Honi.
“So to sum it up, we haven’t actively disaffiliated from CISA but have been passively disaffiliated by CISA due to its failure to provide us with any means to do so, or communicate with us in any way at all.”
CISA’s response and plans for radical changes to membership
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n response to UMSU International and GUPSA’s concerns, Soltanpour blamed the lack of an “ideal” handover from former President Oscar Ong, a lack of “two-way” communication from members, lack of progress on reforms and significant changes being planned internally to change CISA’s membership structure.
“I didn’t really get much of a handover either. Most of the emails were not there so I couldn’t even really look through emails and try and see what could have been shared. I came into CISA entirely blind,“ said Soltanpour, who claims the reason behind CISA’s lack of communication is the body’s ongoing constitutional reforms.
“It’s not that I don’t want them to [not] have that connection to us. But then the fact that I haven’t connected to them is because at the moment what can I genuinely offer them that would be of value?”
Within Soltanpour’s vision is a radical overhaul to CISA’s membership, which seems to stem from CISA’s frustrations with its own member student unions, its structure being described as “willy-nilly” and that some student unions were “biting the hand” of CISA.
“But for me to be able to actively advocate for students, we cannot bite the hand that feeds us is how I think about it. At the moment, our membership structure is a bit willy-nilly. So if we were to have members that we couldn’t actually speak out if they were doing something that was against our values, then that kind of defeats the entire purpose of CISA as a student union.”
When pressed on the proposed reforms, Soltanpour said that CISA will seek to broaden the membership beyond universities towards TAFE, VET, and individual student members.
However, she did not confirm whether individual student members may have to pay an affiliation fee similar to student unions, citing the ongoing reform process. Honi asked if this may mean that non-paying individual student members will have the same rights as paying member unions leading to unequal representation. Soltanpour did not think there would be an inconsistency if the two groups were granted the same rights.
“To be honest, it would be unfair, if they didn’t. I think every voice is a very important voice in my opinion. So I would, I would hope that they get equal treatment and they get equal attention as they should.”
This is not the first time that CISA is facing existential questions about its viability. In 2020, the ANU Observer reported that former CISA National President Ahmed Ademoglu resigned following allegations of financial mismanagement by failing to declare a sponsorship package worth $200,000 to CISA’s executive, misusing CISA money by “pretending that a mistake in a flight booking was the Treasurer’s fault”, and using another executive’s identity when boarding a flight.
CISA’s predecessor, the Overseas Student Association (OSA), closed doors when former NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and all universities across NSW issued an “extraordinary” rebuke of the association after allegations of privacy invasion and issuing fraudulent “safety cards”.
In a statement, an Investment NSW spokesperson did not confirm nor deny suspending funds from CISA and said that it continues to recognise the body as the country’s peak organisation for international students.
“Funding for CISA is delivered in collaboration with other state-based study organisations, and future investment opportunities will be considered on their merits in line with our priorities to enhance the international student experience.”
Study Queensland also commented, noting that while the state “previously provided funding to CISA” and included the organisation playing an advisory role in several meetings in the past, these arrangements have since stopped.
“However, there is currently no formal contractual arrangement with CISA. Engaging with the student’s voice continues to be a priority for Study Queensland.”
Study Melbourne was contacted for comment and has not responded at the time of writing.
A full transcript of questions and responses in Honi and CISA’ National President Yeganeh Soltanpour’s interview is available here.
Disclaimer: Khanh Tran is a former International Student Ambassador with the City of Sydney.