Students fighting back at Auckland University

26 September 2011

Students fighting back at Auckland

Students and staff have attended a rally at Auckland University today which has developed into an occupation on the top floor of the Owen G Glenn Building.

Around 500 students attended the rally at 1pm in the students’ association quad. About 300 then moved to the university Registry building before taking control of the upper floors of the business school, where they remain at 4.30pm.

Student President Joe McCrory spoke at the rally earlier today. “What we are seeing is a student led movement against Government attacks on students – Heather Roy’s voluntary student membership bill, scheduled for third reading this week, and Steven Joyce’s crackdown on student services levies that will see students worse off,” McCrory said.

Student fee increases were also a target for the demonstrators. “Government underfunding to Auckland University has seen fees rise while access to universities is declining. Students are the most vulnerable in the funding environment, and should be protected from a lifetime of repayments. Underfunding should not be an excuse to increase over $11 billion dollars of student debt,” McCrory said.

AUSA supports the protesters objectives of rejecting voluntary student membership, rejecting increased Government control over student services levies, and student fee hikes.

“This isn’t the student executive leading protests, this is regular students who have had enough of Government regulations hurting the futures of their fellow students and interfering with the institutional autonomy of New Zealand universities,” McCrory said.

“The right of universities to academic freedom is enshrined in section 161 of the Education Act, and these protests are about students deciding what will work best on our individual campuses, especially with regard to voluntary membership,” McCrory concluded.

ENDS

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