As a second year, and first time student I feel like I and others in my year have been screwed over twice now. I was in year 13 starting to apply for universities when the decision to move free fees from the first to final year was put in place. Now, just before we move into our final year they have removed free fees for us again. The decision to move the free fees from the first year to final was damaging enough, many students who wouldn’t be able to look at going to university without having their first year free were left with little financial support, and now instead of having to finance two years of university they have to finance three. I am left feeling as though the government does not care about us, and would rather put their money into those that are already established, such as tobacco companies and landlords, rather than those of us trying to set ourselves up for a good future.
The crazy thing is that Chrisopher Luxon has claimed fees free to be a ‘fail’. First of all, my year was meant to be the first of the three year degree cohort to receive their final year free, so for the most part they haven’t even had the opportunity to see the results of moving this to final year. Unless of course, the numbers aren’t turning out like you hoped because, of course, less people enroll in education when you make it harder for them to access it. Secondly, while the government chooses to put profit over people, they ignore the fact that setting future generations up for the future workforce including jobs that require higher education, which means we keep investing in the country’s future, rather than incentivising citizens to move to Australia, which looks more and more tempting each day. If the government really is so concerned about saving money, here are some things they could save on:
What it all comes back to really whether intentional or not is that removing fees free is inherently elitist and classist. It removes pathways for minority groups that have historically faced barriers to higher education. You can claim it’s teaching people to work for themselves, but when you benefit from a system that has prioritized privileged upper class white people and made it easier for you to navigate it, removing support that creates equity for other groups makes it seem like you don’t want anyone else to make it to the top. In a time where it is becoming so incredibly hard to afford even basic living, why are you choosing to make it harder? I am a citizen of Aotearoa, we are all citizens of Aotearoa just as much as anyone else, like well established businesses are, but they’re not treating us like we are. At this point, I’m thinking I might just move overseas.
