Govt ‘broke promise on fees’

Press, 28 December 1988, Page 1

Govt ‘broke promise on fees’

By

GLEN PERKINSON

The Government breached its promise to consult the Labour Party over nonmanifesto initiatives with its policy on fees for foreign students, Labour officials and the member of Parliament for Sydenham, Mr Jim Anderton, claim.

Yesterday the only support the Government appeared to be getting for its announcement on Monday was from the Opposition’s spokesman on education, Dr Lockwood Smith.

Mr Anderton, two members of the Labour Party’s policy committee and the New Zealand University Students’ Association condemned the announcement. Mr Anderton and the committee members, Ms Kate Boanas and Mr Chris Tremewan, were angry that the announcement by the Associate Minister of Education, Mr Goff, had not been referred to the party’s consultative process. Mr Anderton also took sides with the Students’ Association claim that the policy might be used to justify fees for domestic students in the future.

Mr Goff yesterday denied allegations from the two party officials that the policy was announced “in the dead of night of the Christmas-New Year holidays” to reduce criticism of the move.

Mr Anderton said the announcement of the policy, to be implemented by 1990, was. "against the official policy of the Labour Party at the time of the last election.”

Labour said then it had abolished the $l5OO fee for private overseas students and would increase foreign students’ access to education here from secondary school to tertiary institutions. Mr Anderton said the policy was “very disturbing news.”

It marked a “dramatic change in New Zealand’s attitude to providing educational opportunities” for students from developing nations. “If we are to accept overseas students on their ability to pay full fees, how long will it be before we apply the same criteria to New Zealand students?” he asked. “As far as I’m aware this change of policy has not been

approved by the consultative process agreed to at the Labour Party’s Dunedin conference.” He said the Government was developing the “user-pays principle into an art form.”

Ms Boanas and Mr Tremewan were angry that the Government had shirked its responsibility to the party over the policy which could see foreign students paying as much as $15,000 a year in tuition fees.

They revealed that two Government Ministers had already been told the committee wanted to examine the policy before the Government took action. “One wonders how much confidence the party and public can have in a policy when it is announced without consultation,” they said. They said the policy could be “unjust and flawed.” The party president, Ms Ruth Dyson, was unavailable for comment last evening.

In spite of the party’s reaction to the policy educationists have welcomed it, as has Dr Smith.

Dr Smith said it would open up more positions for New Zealand students with the money made by institutions from charging foreign students.

He had been quizzing the Minister of Education, Mr Lange, for two years about introducing the policy. The Government had moved too slowly. The Students’ Association said the policy was an about-face.

After abolishing the previous overseas student fee this move was “discriminatory and in conflict” with agreements the Government had made with other nations, said the association’s president, Mr Andrew Little, yesterday.

He predicted full-cost fees would force academic standards down because “income is more important than academic quality-” . - Student reaction, page 7