Student call for action on class inequalities

Press, 13 June 1984, Page 9

Student call for action on class inequalities

The class inequalities of university students could be avoided, said the president of the New Zealand University Students’ Association, Ms Jessica Wilson, yesterday.

Ms Wilson was commenting on the results of a study by three staff members of the education department at the University of Canterbury, Dr Hugh Lauder, Mr David Hughes, and Mr Stephen Taberner. The study showed that students with upper-class parents were more likely to enter a university than their middle

class or working class peers, in spite of scholastic abilities.

“it is important to see that this fact is not a fact of life — it is a fact of following Government policies,” said Ms Wilson.

Some organisations had already noted this inequality, she said. The Government could help right the imbalance but it was content to say that its “belief’ in open entry to universities was evidence of concern. “Beliefs don’t butter bread or pay for note-pads,” she said.

The association would survey student incomes, and spending in the next two months to discover precisely who was in trouble financially. It would also try to come up with “bursary proposals which could work for equality,” Ms Wilson said.

“But surveys don’t butter bread either, so we will be looking for action in this area so that the next time Dr Lauder surveys young New Zealanders we can report real progress towards equality of access to university,’’.she said.