Students upset about Minister’s push for user-pays education

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 9

Students upset about Minister’s push for user-pays education

Student leaders at the University of Canterbury are upset about continuing suggestions by the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, that university students may have to pay their own way. Mr Marshall has again hinted that, as individuals benefit from university education, they may have to pay for it themselves. The acting president of the University of Canterbury Students’ Association, Mr Grant Mangin, said yesterday that this would mean universities would be attended only by students with wealthy parents.

By making - students take out loans to finance their studies, the Minister would discourage people from poorer backgrounds from attending university, Mr Mangin said. Ms Kirsty Burnett, president of the Lincoln College Students’ Association, said many university graduates already paid back the cost of their education because they were in high tax brackets.

She also said that some people who went to university did not go on to become high-income earners.

Ms Burnett said there were other ways the Gov-

ernment could cut spending on universities other than cutting student bursaries.

“Why aren’t they looking at the research and work being done in such institutions? Are they getting the best possible deal there? Are they getting the best possible deal out of the staff?” she said. The Government should also look at reasons why people from poorer backgrounds were not going to universities. One of the, problems might be issues such as lack of childcare, she said, which could be remedied without spending too much money.