THE PRESS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1989. Fees for overseas students

Press, 26 October 1989, Page 14

THE PRESS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1989. Fees for overseas students

Overseas students at New Zealand universities, polytechnics, and teachers’ colleges now face tuition fees ranging from $BOOO to $24,000 a year, depending on their course of study. The change, introduced as a part of the user-pays education policy that has also burdened New Zealand students with a hefty increase in the costs they must meet, drew sharp criticism from the Commonwealth Secretariat at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kuala Lumpur. New Zealand stands accused of capriciously and unfairly limiting the educational opportunities of students from poor and undeveloped countries. The imputation is wide of the mark.

Evidently a few observers consider that New Zealand is in some way turning its back on overseas students, and Commonwealth students in particular, by introducing a selective and punitive charge. Two facts dispose of this argument. New Zealand’s own students, whose right to an education in New Zealand’s institutions is undeniable, have been hit by user-pays too; the changes are hurting more New Zealand students more severely, and the changes cannot in any way be considered to target overseas students solely or even especially. Second, closing the open door does not preclude New Zealand aid directed at education for foreign students who cannot afford the charge and are deserving of help. Indeed, the effect of few Zealand’s new education policy on most overseas students — those from Singapore and Malaysia being an exception — is largely one of extracting the New Zealand taxpayers’ subsidy from a different pocket. In respect of New Zealand students it is a matter of sharply reducing the subsidy. New Zealand taxpayers will continue to subsidise overseas students taking courses in New Zealand institutions, but through the aid and development programmes of the Ministry of External Relations and Trade instead of through the general costs of the Department of Education. For most overseas students, the change is one of emphasis; for most New Zealand students it is genuinely an additional charge. Perhaps as many as 4000 overseas students attend places of learning in New Zealand. They have been admitted to the schools, colleges, and universities under a wide variety of provisions; only now is an accurate figure being collated. A few of these are pupils, mainly from the Pacific Islands, in primary classes; some are post-graduate students; most are either sixth and seventh form students, or are at tertiary institutions. The cost of their education used to be absorbed in the budget Parliament allows for education; it is now charged as an aid and development item and in the present financial year will cost taxpayers $34.1 million. This figure is expected to rise to about $3B million next year. Even this is not the full story. Subsidised overseas students from now on will fall generally into two categories; the fees scholars who replace the former quota arrangements, and the students awarded

places under overseas development assistance bilateral programmes. Both groups will have their tuition costs met by the New Zealand taxpayer but the latter group will be eligible, in addition, for stipends and travel costs that are not part of the $34.1 million budget. Further, New Zealand will continue to support through aid programmes the education of overseas students in their own countries and in regional institutions such as the University of the South Pacific.

Of students hoping to take a place in New Zealand classes, those from Malaysia and Singapore have some reason to feel disappointed. They will become fee-paying students and will have to meet their own costs. Transitional arrangements cover students from these countries who began their studies in New Zealand no later than this year. They will receive a contribution from the New Zealand Government of twothirds of the cost of their tuition from 1990 until their studies are completed. All future students from these countries will have to meet the full cost themselves.

The reason for the changed rules in respect of these two countries, however, is not user-pays education, but a consequence of continuing reviews of the aid relationships between New Zealand and developing countries. Because of their economic development, neither Singapore nor Malaysia is classified any longer.jas an appropriate country for development assistance. Priorities have to be set and, in terms of comparative advantage, Singapore and Malaysia have closed the economic gap on New Zealand, and are measurably better off than other countries which have 'a? greater need of New Zealand’s overseas aid.

The possibility of making money frdm. the sale of New Zealand’s educational services to stiidefeiiSyan iipbyidus; attraction for outselling 3 just about anything for which it can find a market. If private overseas students are to be enticed here, the product will have to be good and the price competitive. If not, the hopes of the Government and the New Zealand Trade Development Board might turn to ashes. The success or failure of an export market for education is a separate issue, however, from user-pay education for New Zealanders and from the provision of places in schools and universities for students from developing countries as part of New Zealand’s aid commitliient. v ■ - ’f

The Government has undertaken, to maintain its role as a provider of educational*; services as part of its aid programmes,’ particularly to the JPacific. Extra'money i-haS been made available, to the" Ministry of External Relations' - end Trade for this purpose and is reaSsynhg' on-this score. New' 7 Zealand has slipped, from its former position of being a decidedlj^more-affluent, member of the region. demand is giving even supplying it&r bargain prices,’tp\,crffi;pn^; of other countries Unless; it ,is plain tjiht' qthef countries need our help’in education. -