11. PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) Link to this
to the Minister for Tertiary Education
What changes is the Government making to ensure student services levies are fairer to students?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Tertiary Education) Link to this
I announced last week that the Government intends to seek to pass legislation shortly to ensure that large, unjustified increases in compulsory, non-academic student levies become a thing of the past. The legislation will give power to the Minister for Tertiary Education to require institutions to consult students on the charges and the range of services provided. Over the past few years we have seen a trend emerge where levies have increased in some institutions by as much as 400 percent in a single year. I cannot accept that these exorbitant increases reflect a commensurate increase in services offered.
Mr SPEAKERI call David Shearer. Oh, I beg the member’s pardon. I have called David Shearer, not Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga, for the first supplementary question. That is most unusual, and I apologise to the member for my mistake.
David ShearerDoes the Minister agree with the University of Canterbury vice-chancellor, Rod Carr, that the reason student levies have increased so dramatically in recent years is that students are getting “a crap deal” from the Government, which is refusing to fund higher education at the levels it should?
No, I do not agree with that comment, at all. In fact, New Zealand has one of the most generous student support systems in the world. In New Zealand we pay 75 percent of the tuition fees for students; we subsidise a student loan scheme, which writes off about 45c in the dollar for every student; and we pay student allowances to many students as well. It is the most generous system in the world.
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga Link to this
What plans does the Government have to ensure accountability by tertiary institutions in the setting of the types of student services provided?
Institutions will be required to consult students on the range of services provided and report on how they have spent the levies. They must state what services the levies provide, account transparently about their expenditure, consult students on the expenditure, and publish clear expectations in their annual reports. I am concerned that the cost of what can only be described as poor services has sometimes been passed on to students when the costs of these services should have been included in the tuition fees paid by the students. The Government, as I said earlier, funds 75 percent of the cost of tuition, on average, for students and I intend to ensure that students and taxpayers get the benefit from that funding.
How will “ensure greater involvement of students in decision-making”, as the bill says, be achieved when students associations, which the providers will be dealing with, will be degraded and possibly destroyed by the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill, which his Government is supporting?
They can be degraded or destroyed only if students do not value the services they provide. That is the challenge with that particular assertion. But the universities and other institutions will have the responsibility to consult their student bodies, and I imagine that will include the students associations.