600% rise in services fee shocks students

Students are shocked Canterbury University is plugging a government funding gap with a $600 levy on them.

From next year they will have to pay the levy and they say they were not consulted and have questioned the rise for no extra services.

Canterbury University students paid just $85 in compulsory add-on fees this year for their Canterbury card and health centre.

Otago University students had the highest student levy at $440, while Lincoln University students were charged $312.

Canterbury University has defended the $600 fee, saying it was necessary to ensure the continuing quality of education. With about 19,500 students, the levy is set to boost revenue by about $10 million a year.

Vice-Chancellor Rod Carr said the university was in a capped funding environment, which meant the large rise in students enrolling during the recession was not being matched with increased funding from the Government.

The university had decided to direct its money towards the core services of teaching and research, meaning all student support services had to be funded through the student levy. This included the students' association building and services, health and recreation centres and counselling, careers and disability services.

Carr said the university would still fund a quarter of the cost of student services, which totalled about $10m a year. It was consulting about putting a cap on payments.

The University of Canterbury Students' Association said it supported the move. An email sent to all students said the money would be ring-fenced for spending on student support. Students would make up half the delegates on a new appropriations committee to decide how funds would be used.

"Every dollar spent on service provision is a dollar not spent in the classroom, and students have seen erosion in the resources provided for teaching and research over the past few years," said president Steve Jukes.

"Students are being put in an impossible situation contribute to the cost or see those services cut. The UCSA cannot support a cut to service provision."

New Zealand Union of Students' Associations co-president Jordan King said the rise was unprecedented.

"We are very concerned; we don't think it's acceptable."

Postgraduate student Davia Wadsworth said the levy would add thousands over several years of study. "I don't know if it's justified, but my initial reaction is no," she said.

Twenty-three-year-old Sarah Cleghorn said the increase was "ridiculous". "It's quite extreme to go from $85 to $600."ACT deputy leader Heather Roy has a private members' bill on the ballot to remove compulsory membership of all students' associations.

She said Canterbury students should be very concerned about an increase of more than 600 per cent in compulsory fees.

"A large number of students will get nothing for that money."

- © Fairfax NZ News