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Tuition fee elimination is good enough for Austria

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Tue Sep 18 2012 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Tuition fee elimination is good enough for Austria

NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations Tuesday, 18 September 2012, 3:00 pm
Press Release: NZUSA

Media release – 18 September 2012

Tuition fee elimination is good enough for Austria – why not New Zealand?

In the latest “Education at a Glance” report published this month by the OECD, special mention is made of the step taken by Austria to eliminate its system of tuition fees.

The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) says this is further evidence that the path set in New Zealand, where fees are relentlessly allowed to rise by a default of 4% each year, is the wrong path to be on, and needs to be put on the table to be reviewed again.

The OECD has found that countries with high levels of tuition fees tend to be those where private sources, such as companies, contribute the most to funding tertiary institutions – that is, countries that have a high level of privatization not experienced in New Zealand.

Noting also the OECD’s plea to Governments to maintain “reasonable costs for higher education” during the global financial crisis, the NZUSA has renewed its call for an immediate freeze on tuition fees as a sign the Government is committed to enhancing equality of education opportunities.

Allied to this call, the NZUSA is challenging all publicly funded tertiary education institutions to closely examine the costs they could save by cutting back their spending on unnecessary, wasteful, and blandly inflated marketing and cliche ridden advertising.

Figures obtained by NZUSA show that the domestic marketing and advertising spend aimed at recruiting new students rose to $30 million in the 2011 calendar year.

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This is deemed to be a ridiculous sum of money to be spending when anyone in tertiary education in New Zealand knows that any actual gains to be made are ridiculously negligible.

Elsewhere in its report the OECD has provided an exemplary list of 11 countries where students aren’t exposed to personal debt finance schemes – namely France, Italy, Austria, Finland, Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland, Slovenia, Portugal, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

In 2009 the only country to have imposed a bigger quantum of disproportionate student loans on its future tax-paying citizens was the United Kingdom; followed by New Zealand.

© Scoop Media

NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations

NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations

We stand for opportunity, for all.

NZUSA is the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations, the national body that represents New Zealand's students' associations and the interests of New Zealand's 400,000 students at universities, polytechnics and in trades training.

We conduct original research, advocate to Government and through the media, and support New Zealand's students' associations to be more effective on behalf of their members. We advocate alongside Te Mana Akonga – The National Māori Students' Association, and Tertiary Women New Zealand – The NZUSA Women's Caucus.

Since 1929, we've believed in a society rich in opportunity, where anyone from anywhere can become any thing. We support accessible, affordable quality public tertiary education.

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