Media Release - 16 October 2007 – For immediate release

Students disappointed at continued fee rise

Students are disappointed that the University of Auckland has voted to increase domestic fees for 2008.

“Students are again left again holding the can – bearing the brunt of the university raising fees by the maximum allowable increase and government failing to properly fund high-quality tertiary education,” says Bethanie Maples, AUSA Acting President.

Despite student opposition this afternoon, the Council still proceeded to vote to increase fees by 2.7% undergraduate, and 7.2% postgraduate, meaning an overall increase of 3.65%. Some programmes at the postgraduate level, such as several Masters and Honours programmes, were increased by 10.7%.

“While the percentage for domestic students was less than recent years, this simply reflected the fact that Auckland’s fees are the highest in the country,” says David Do, AUSA Education Vice President.

“High and rising fees are one of the root causes of New Zealand’s high levels of student debt, due to exceed a whopping $9.4 billion shortly.”

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Despite the fee rise, students didn’t come away completely empty-handed from today’s meeting.

Council did vote in favour of resolutions(narrowly by 8-7 for the first one) put forward by student reps David Do and Anna Crowe to:

“recognise that high tuition fees and fee rises have significant adverse social and economic impacts on students and the wider community” d

“and further calls upon the government to increase funding of the university sector to adequately meet annual cost base increases within the institutions,”

“and resolve to collaborate more closely with other sector organisations and representatives(such as AUSA), who share their concerns about sector underfunding to promote these concerns to government.”

AUSA submitted detailed written submissions to Council describing the negative impacts that fee rises and high fees have on students and graduates.

“I am pleased that Council has recognised that voting for fee rises has significant adverse impacts beyond the fiscal implications for the University itself,” says David Do, AUSA Education Vice President.

“As AUSA President next year, I am absolutely committed to campaigning for a better deal for students – not just increasing access to student allowances, but also increasing funding to ensure high-quality tertiary education and lower fees for the future.”

ENDS

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