Media release: 23 October 2012

Māori students should not be used to justify any fee increases

“Māori and Pasifika students should not be used by any tertiary institution to justify its bid to increase fees,” contends Ivy Harper, Tumuaki of Te Mana Ākonga (National Māori Tertiary Students’ Association).

Through the media Victoria University has announced its justification to apply to the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) to increase its fees by 8 per cent - double the maximum allowed under law – was to allow the university to better support Māori and Pasifika students.

“Te Mana Ākonga advocates a learner-centred approach not learner exploitation. To say that additional revenue will be used towards a ‘programme of learning support’ to benefit all students is commendable; however, surely such a programme is already in place?”, asks Harper. “At the same time, the idea that Victoria University can use Māori and Pasifika students to gain more money to benefit all students in the faculties is ludicrous. When did the achievement of all students become the responsibility of Māori and Pasifika students, and what is Victoria University doing with the Equity Funding it already receives for priority allocation to Māori, Pasifika and students with disabilities?”

Te Mana Ākonga has long been an advocate for Māori and has supported the Government focus on increasing Māori and Pasifika achievement as stated in the Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015. However, Te Mana Ākonga believes that this outcome should not be accomplished at the expense of the very students that it is supposed to support.

“The comments by the Vice-Chancellor are incredible. His suggestion that the increase in the social sciences and humanities fee will better support Māori and Pasifika students overlooks the fact that the high concentrations of students that take these courses are from poor backgrounds, many of them Māori and Pasifika. How can he better support these students by increasing fees when many of them cannot afford the fee to attend university in the first place”, contends Harper?

“Māori and Pasifika students are already under-represented and disadvantaged out of tertiary education because they cannot afford to attend. Over 55% of our Māori learners are at Wānanga which are levels 1-3 so many do not even make it to university”, notes Harper.

“The Vice-Chancellor would be better off supporting these students by allowing for independent Māori student representation so that current students can actually tell the university what is working for Māori. He would be better off making sure that appropriate cultural and pastoral support is fully available for Māori and Pasifika students rather than increasing study fees on top of collecting Equity funding”, argues Harper.

The fact the representation of a lone student voice at the Tertiary Commission has been dropped, as has been the Learners Advisory Committee, that gave a crucial student view on policy decisions is also unhelpful.

“How can organisations such as the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and universities know what is happening from a learner’s perspective when there is not a student voice there in the first place”, asks Harper. “For John Spencer to say that the ‘opportunity for meaningful input had significantly diminished’ shows that he is not in touch with what is actually happening on the ground”, says Harper. “Not having an independent learner voice gives institutions like Victoria University the opportunity to make decisions that have a huge impact on students and permits universities to claim that such decisions will allow the university to better support them”[students]. In fact they simply create another barrier to education, in this case for Māori and Pasifika students and therefore, participation and achievement in higher levels of tertiary study”, says Harper.

ENDS

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