Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations is the peak representative body for postgraduate students in Australia. CAPA's members are 33 postgraduate associations and the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Postgraduate Association. CAPA provides member associations with representation to the Federal government, and peak bodies such as the Australian Research Council and Universities Australia, on issues affecting postgraduate students in Australia. In 2017, Australia had over 400,000 postgraduate students, representing one quarter of all tertiary students in Australia.
Recognising the dual roles of many postgraduate students, CAPA works in collaboration with the National Union of Students where matters impact on all students, and with the National Tertiary Education Union regarding issues of employment in the tertiary education sector, particularly on the casualisation of the academic workforce.
CAPA has an office located at the NTEU National office in Melbourne, Victoria. Its Annual Council Meeting, where organisational issues and policy directives are decided, is hosted by a different constituent organisation each year.
History
CAPA was founded in 1979 by a coalition of ten postgraduate organisations in order to protest taxation on postgraduate research scholarships. Historically, CAPA has been concerned with lobbying around fees on postgraduate degrees.In 1998, a separate organisation, the National Indigenous Postgraduate Association was formed within CAPA. This association became the National Indigenous Postgraduate Association Aboriginal Corporation in 1999, and was later restructured as the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Postgraduate Association in 2015.