Media release: Cost of tertiary education now 19% higher than 2 years ago.

The union for academics and staff working in universities, polytechnics and wānanga say that the proposal to permit tertiary institutions to increase student fees to 6% in a year when fees-free support has been withdrawn is unacceptable and irresponsible.

President Te Tiriti for the Tertiary Education Union (TEU), Ti Lamusse, says the 6% addition proposed by the Government in the Annual Maximum Fee Movement would push fees for New Zealand students to more than 19% above 2024 levels.

"Everyone is suffering from the cost of living crisis. To remove fees free and to push student costs and debt even higher is cruel, short-term thinking by this Government."

Ti Lamusse says that students are being asked to absorb fee increases at nearly double the rate of general price increases. Inflation currently sits at 3.1%.

"This puts the burden of education on the shoulders of young people and their whānau. We want our young people to enter the workforce armed with skills, energy and great ideas, not weighed down by debt.

"Ultimately TEU believes education is a public good and it should be freely accessible to all. We want to set our young people up for success, not use their education as a profit-making machine."

Aidan Donoghue, President of Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA) says students are doing it hard.

In a recent State of the Student Survey conducted by VUWSA with 1200 students at Victoria University, 38% of respondents said they had skipped a meal in the last fortnight.

"Our everyday living costs and debt have been compounded. Having fees free ripped away from us was an absolute kick in the teeth. I had a student phone me in tears after the annoucement, because they’d budgeted their education under the assumption that their last year would be free.They’ve now left university.

"Students I talk to are wondering why they’d stay in New Zealand. We’re talking about losing the next generation of nurses, teachers, doctors, agricultural workers and engineers - highly skilled people who should be moving into our workforce, but they can’t see why they’d stay with the level of debt and cost and a better lifestyle overseas. There’s a sense that there’s no support for them here in their own country."

Ti Lamusse says the Annual Maximum Fee Movement has become a mechanism for passing the chronic government underfunding of universities, polytechnics and wānanga onto students.

"The answer to creating a thriving society for our young people is proper government investment, not higher fees.

The Tertiary Education Union submitted on the consultation which closed this morning.

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Notes to editors:

• 19% increase in student fees cost since 2024 is based on: the 6% increases over three years ( link) are compounding. In other words, each year’s 6% increase is calculated on the already-increased fee from the year before (assuming a TEI chooses to go with the maximum). Over 3 years, this works out to be just over 19%.
• Public investment in tertiary education sits more than 24% below the OECD average ( link).
• New Zealand's total student loan debt has reached $16.8 billion and is growing ( link).
• TEU's submission on the Annual Maximum Fee Movement can be read here.

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