TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says that systematic underfunding is pressuring tertiary institutions into passing costs onto students.

Last week the Manawatu Standard reported that UCOL planned to increase its student services levy by a hundred dollars a year to offset government funding cuts. UCOL, like other tertiary institutions, was unable to pass the cost of government funding cuts directly on to students through student fees, because of the government’s five percent fee rise cap on institutions.”  Instead it has raised its separate student services levy, replicating a strategy adopted at other institutions looking to sidestep the fee rise maxima.

Dr Ryan says that where students are not covering the cost of underfunding from their own wallets they are instead subsidising through a compromised the quality of the education.” ” 

“Anecdotally I’m talking to staff around the country who are all describing bigger tutorial classes, more crowded venues, and less time to do the basics of running a successful tertiary education course. We won’t know until final rolls are confirmed how much workloads are growing by. But it all makes it harder to provide quality teaching. Staff in student support services are probably feeling the combined pressure of growing rolls and dwindling budgets the most.”