High tuition fees irk Lincoln

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 3

High tuition fees irk Lincoln

By

JENNY LONG

The Lincoln College Council yesterday expressed concern at the Government’s intention to make tertiary students pay a higher proportion of their education costs. The president of the Lincoln College Students’ Association, Mr Michael James, who proposed the motion, said that one of New Zealand’s most pressing tasks was to get more people going on to higher education. “Making students pay increased tuition fees can only discourage people from coming to university,” he said. Lincoln joins Otago, Canterbury and Massey university councils in expressing concerns at the Government’s intention. Students will be asked to pay about $l2OO a year in tuition fees from next year, if the Government goes ahead with its proposal. Mr James said that the Associate Minister of Education, Mr Goff, was obviously trying to make the public think that higher fees and bank loans were inevitable. Mr James said the graduate tax scheme had once been stated as inevitable, but it was given the “thumbs-down” by the Inland Revenue Department which would have had to administer it. “In the case of the student loans scheme, the main banks are not all that happy at the idea of having to administer it. “Student loans schemes have proved an administrative nightmare overseas, and the banks know it,” he said.