50 Students Occupy Symonds Street
20 October 2013
At 4pm on Monday the 21st of October, 50 University of Auckland Students occupied Symonds Street. The protest has
stalled traffic on one of Auckland's busiest roads and police are now directing traffic.
Students are frustrated by the University’s year after year lack of consideration of student welfare by increasing fees
regardless of economic conditions. Student debt in New Zealand has surpassed $13 billion and will continue to rise
because of underfunding by successive governments in Wellington. NZ currently spends 23% less per student than the OECD
average. Students strongly oppose the need to look for corporate funding because of this funding shortfall as this
compromises academic integrity.
Reclaim UoA spokesperson Mikaela Hunt says, ‘Students are suffering under the weight of their debt. Currently, students
and graduates are forced to repay their student loan at a level of income well below the poverty line. New Zealand has
the harshest repayment rate in the world, with twelve cents from every dollar taken from every pay cheque. This is
grossly unfair, as the current tertiary education minister, and almost all other members of parliament, benefited from a
fully funded tertiary education system.’
The University of Auckland’s decision to further indebt students is completely avoidable. The Vice-Chancellor, Stuart
McCutcheon, is currently NZ’s highest paid public official, earning $660,000 per year and has spent billions on
questionable capital investments in his tenure.
Mikaela Hunt says, 'We are here to make it abundantly that students oppose fee increases and a future which chains us
and our country to debt.'
ends