Chaos reigns as Auckland University hikes fees by 4%

Auckland University students were appalled as the University of Auckland Council adopted a 4.0% increase for domestic students in 2012, as well as a 5% hike for international students in 2013.

The University of Auckland Council meeting was disrupted by the arrival of around 100 students at about 3.00pm, who forced their way into the meeting through a side door.

With the Chancellor Roger France moving the Council meeting into a closed session, Council then adopted the highest increase in domestic fee increases allowable by law in a domestic fee increases in a split vote, 12 votes for and 4 votes opposed, with 2 Councillors absent.

Student Association President Joe McCrory, representative of students on the Council, was one of the two student representatives who voted against the fees hike. “The inadequate level of Government funding for tertiary education is driving our best graduates overseas,” McCrory said.

“Increased student protest is symptomatic of a growing level of student anxiety about their futures. Politicians secured their own future with a free education, a right their parents worked for which they are taking away from their own children. While there are obvious concerns about access and capacity in changing the model, the lack of vision and planning means debt will continue to grow while political thumbs are twiddled,” McCrory said.

Student debt now exceeds $11 billion dollars.

“Over the course of a degree, students may have the initial fees slowly raised by around 20%, so it’s unfair that Parliament’s lack of vision for tertiary education punishes students and graduates financially and harshly,” McCrory said.

“Today’s students are tomorrow’s voters, and sooner or later solving the growing tertiary education crisis will become a political necessity,” McCrory concluded.

ENDS

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