Fees up for overseas students?

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32525, 8 February 1971, Page 7

Fees up for overseas students?

(By our education reporter)

A major Government cut in spending on education is imminent, and is likely to mean higher fees for ove seas students attending New Zealand universities. Reductions were discussed by the Cabinet on Monday,

and .an increase of $lOO a year in the fees of overseas students was considered. Such an increase would reduce Government expenditure on education by more than $200,000.

Asked yesterday if reductions in education spending would be announced soon, a member of the Prime Minister’s staff (Mr G. F. Nelson) said that this would be a question for the office of the Minister of Education, but he understood that the matters had been “satisfactorily resolved.”

Mr B. H. Fitzpatrick, a private secretary to the Minister of Education (Mr Talboys) said that as education accounted for a large proportion of Government spending it was inevitable that it was high on the list of areas where reductions were being considered. “The $lOO extra for overseas students is certainly a possibility being considered as part of the over-all plan,” he said. Mr Fitzpatrick said that many of the measures being ( considered to ease Government expenditure were not direct reductions, but merely ; increases in fees and charges. If overseas students are charged higher fees, it will mean a system of different- • ial fees which the Minister of 1 Education has publicly opposed on the New Zealand Broadcasting programme “Checkpoint” in October last year. If the Cabinet carries

through its proposal to increase the fees of overseas students it will be likely to lower the annual Government grant to the universities. The universities will then be forced to recoup their losses—presumably by charging the higher fees mentioned. Fees for New Zealand-born students might also be increased. At the University of Canterbury, where 630 overseas students are expected this year, the annual grant might be cut by more than $60,000. The vice-president of the New Zealand University Students’ Asociation (Mr M. G. Law) said that there could be no justification for any attempt to impose any form of differential fees on students coming to New Zealand from overseas.

“The association is alarmed that such a proposal should form part of the Government’s plan to reduce education spending,” he said.