By Duncan Garner
Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce has fired a shot at those running our polytechs and universities.
Mr Joyce says they may be charged too much for student support services and wants those in charge to justify heavy fee increases.
“I would urge universities and polytechs to tread carefully with these compulsory add-ons,” says Mr Joyce.
“You wouldn’t want to see big increase after big increase.”
But that’s exactly what is happening.
Wellington’s Victoria University charged full and part time students $275 per year for support services in 2009.
This year that’s up to $510.
Auckland University has gone from $350 to $468.
“There are some things that you legitimately should get for free when you go to uni, like the library,” says Mr Joyce.
UCOL’s fee was $300 last year. It will increase to $600 next year.
Universities and polytechs can’t increase core fees by more than four percent, so students claim they’ve found another way – by increasing fees for the basic services.
“Students are worried that universities are using this as a backdoor way of fee hikes,” says NZ Universities Students’ Association spokesman David Do.
That’s a sentiment Mr Joyce isn’t denying.
“You might say that. A cynic might say that. I’m leaving it open to the VCs to justify… and they may say, ‘It’s all cool, Minister’.”
3 News put the figures to Victoria’s Vice Chancellor Pat Walsh.
“Without [the charge] we’d have to charge on a per-session basis – a counselling session perhaps $120,” she said.
Mr Joyce will now write to all Vice Chancellors asking them to justify the increase.
Ms Walsh says it won’t be hard.
“We’ll be able to justify it and we do it with the support of the students.”
But Mr Do says that’s not correct.
“These fees are getting to very high levels – 200 percent, 300 percent,” he said.
Mr Joyce is unlikely to be able to get universities to lower support services fees, but he has had a shot across the bow at those running our universities and polytechs.
They may think twice about hiking the fees any further, as long as he’s in charge of the portfolio.
3 News