Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association

Opposing user-pays education has historically been VUWSA’s most central campaign. New Zealand students have suffered under the weight of crippling student loans since the introduction of the user-pays tertiary education model introduced in the early 1990s.

VUWSA has a policy of supporting free, quality education for all. This is not just about money, important as that is: free education demands a system that allows and fosters a wide-ranging education that caters to the economic, social, cultural and intellectual needs of all people.

The only way to guarantee this education for all is to remove the barriers to educational access, including economic ones. Education is a public good that should be accessible to all.

Student debt is approaching $11 billion, and has continued to escalate since the student loan scheme was introduced by National in 1992. Success governments (both National and Labour-led) have under funded education as well as other public services such as health since the era of the 4th Labour Government during the 1980s.

After 9 years in opposition National got back into power in the 2008 election. Last time they were in office they introduced the student loan scheme, and tried to push through policies to privatise education – the latter defeated due to staunch opposition from students at Victoria in the late 1990s. Once against students need to stand strong and oppose the user-pays model.

As a result of government under funding, the University continue its cut backs in 2010. Courses continue to be cut, and student-staff ratios have decreased. For instance, some Schools have been forced to run fewer tutorials, larger tutorials (containing 20-30 students, rather than 15-20), so-called ‘student led’ tutorials, and in some programmes, no tutorials at all.

If you want to get involved in helping to campaign against student debt emial the Campaigns Officer.