In Australia, Universal Student Unionism (or USU) is the principle that all students at tertiary education institutions must belong to the student union at their institution.

This has been a bugbear for the right-wing of student politics, who have unsuccussfully argued in favour of Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU). Since under current arrangements almost all students are required to pay their membership fees up-front (i.e. in order ot enrol in university), and since for most this is the only money they have to pay upfront to attend university, USU is seen unfavourably by many as a tax on students.

There have in recent years been increasing attempts to overturn USU. The most success has been the attempts by James Cook University, which has a relatively very right-wing student body, to overturn USU there. Initially they successfully challenged the legality of forcing students to join an association, but this ruling has been subject to contestation.