Anomaly in fees opens door to cut-price study

Press, 11 December 1989, Page 6

Anomaly in fees opens door to cut-price study

By

MARITA VANDENBERG

and PA Students enrolling for a B.A. Honours degree at the University of Canterbury next year will save $750 if they enrol for an M.A. instead then drop out after the first year. This is just one of the anomalies thrown up by the tertiary tuition fee structure due -to be introduced next year. Post-graduate degrees for which at least half the marks are based on research qualify for a fees exemption of 60 per cent. For next year this means an exemption of $750, with students paying $5OO instead of $1250. At the University of Canterbury the one-year B.A. Honours degree will cost $1250. It is identical in content to the first year of the two-year M.A. degree. The M.A. comprises research work in the second year. The University’s Vice-Chancel-lor, Professor Albert Brownlie,

said the anomaly was serious. “There is a very strong reason for a student to enrol for an M.A. then say after the first year that they didn’t wish' to go on. They would then graduate with a B.A. Honours instead. “It worries us that there is an incentive to take such an academically undesirable action.” He said the same situation existed in the science departments. There were also some postgraduate students whose courses required less than 50 per cent research work. They would not be eligible for any exemption. Professor Brownlie said the fees structure had serious implications for universities. They might adapt their regulations not for academic reasons but because of the effect of the fees on students. For example, arts students may now tend to go on to do an M.A., whereas the B.A. Honours degree was introduced two years

ago for good academic reasons. The University Students’ Association is also claiming indirect Government interference in university courses as a result of the new fee structure. Its president, Mr Andrew Little, said most universities feared big losses of post-graduate students and were scrambling to rearrange their courses so as many as possible qualified for the reduced fee. A spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Mr George Preddy, said the new policy was designed to recognise the contribution post-graduate students made to research and development by exempting those doing significant amounts of research from the fee increase. The Government had no wish to interfere in the internal matters of the • university, he said. “Certain post-graduate courses are of economic benefit and others are not — the Government is recognising that.”