Review of extra fees for tertiary students

Steven Joyce

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University students forced to pay compulsory extra fees for services other than their education could be in for a reprieve.

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce is to review extra charges of up to $600 a year which universities and polytechnics are charging students on top of tuition fees. He has cautioned them not to use the charges to avoid caps on fees.

At Victoria University yesterday, Mr Joyce said he was concerned about recent hefty increases to the extra fees, as well as what they were used for. In some cases they seemed to cover basics students should expect from a university, such as building maintenance, library and internet use. Core services should be included in tuition fees.

He would formally raise his concerns with the Vice-Chancellors Committee and review the practice, he said.

"In the meantime I would urge universities and polytechnics to tread carefully with these compulsory add-ons. You wouldn't want to see big increase coming after big increase because ... you might be tempted to believe people are avoiding fee regulation by charging in another way."

Victoria University vice-chancellor Pat Walsh said the fees were necessary because the costs of services were increasing and not funded by the Government. The flat fee was a form of "group insurance" for students and preferable to charging individual students the full cost for any services they used. Most universities also regularly reported back on how the money was spent.

NZ Union of Students Associations co-president David Do said it was good to see Mr Joyce acknowledge the pressure the fees put on students. However, universities had to charge such fees because of underfunding from the Government, he said.

Though there were concerns about the size of some additional fees, the most important issue was transparency over what the revenue was used for.

Mr Joyce also said universities would have to get used to part of their funding being based on how well they performed. Criteria could include the success of graduates in the workplace.

The Tertiary Education Commission would soon begin to publish how different institutions performed to give students more information when choosing where to study.

ADDING UP

Extra annual fees for fulltime students studying on campus (does not include student union membership fees):

Victoria University: $534.

Canterbury University: $600.

Waikato University: $188.

Massey University: $200

Otago University: $467.85

Auckland University: $542.

- © Fairfax NZ News