5 to 10 percent fee increase at Vic: Is this a trend?

And other stuff we are not supposed to know...

Salient was not distributed yesterday because of a High Court injunction obtained by the Uni's Vice-Chancellor, Prof.Pat Walsh.

Distribution was stopped because of an article that uses leaked infromation regarding a likely fee increase for next year.

Otago student magazine 'Critic' published the following article that contains information that should be of great concern to all of us.

If upon reading you decide that this is unfair enough to merit some action, or at least discussion as to why we have a Vice-Chancellor who is effectively denying free speech, come along to the Student Representative Council tomorrow, Wednesday 5th October at 12:50 in the
Quad.

Fee rise at Vic: is this a trend?

ASPA Reporter

Victoria University’s student magazine Salient reports that students
there are in for a massive increase in fees in 2006, with the
University considering 5 to 10 percent across-the-board fee rises.

According to Salient, Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh has presented options
for fee increases in 2006 that range from 5to 10 percent
across-the-board, with postgraduate fees increasing by $500 per
Equivalent Full-Time Student (EFTS) under all the options.

Salient reports that Walsh justified the increase by saying that the
“real levels of government funding continue to decline”, and that the
University’s other major revenue source, student fees, is also
expected to reduce.

Victoria is currently projected to run a $7.8m surplus in 2005, or
3.5 percent of its total revenue. Despite the current surplus,
Salient reports that unavoidable IT and library costs may add up to
as much as $2.4m, with staff pay rise and promotion increases adding
up to an extra $6.7m. Meanwhile, revenue is only projected to
increase by $4.4m. Salient quotes Victoria’s Vice-Chancellor as
saying that achieving the necessary 3 percent surplus without
“substantial redundancies” would be a “testing challenge”.

Though any fee increase above the 5 percent limit imposed by the Fee
Maxima scheme requires special exemption from the Tertiary Education
Commission (TEC), a 10 percent increase would still leave Victoria’s
fees on the low-end for Humanities, mid-range in Law, Science and
Architecture & Design, but on the high-end for Commerce, compared
with other universities in New Zealand. A 10 percent increase will
cost full-time undergraduate and Honours students $300 – 400 per
year, and full-time postgraduate students $500 per year.

Victoria University Students’ Association President Jeremy Greenbrook
has condemned the proposal, calling it “unjustified and plain
greedy”. He says the University has been increasing its surpluses
over the past few years and “always” underestimates the student and
revenue figures.

Victoria’s move follows Massey University’s recent decision to ask
TEC for an exemption to raise fees by 10 percent, raising concerns
that Massey’s move has created a precedent for other universities to
push for exemptions. However, such an exemption is only given under
“exceptional” circumstances. The education provider has to prove that
the cost of the course is not covered by the income generated, the
course could not be cross-subsidised from an overall surplus and that
raising fees would impact on the ability of the University to meet
the government’s tertiary education strategy.

http://203.97.5.87/inline/critic/view_article.php?issue=Critic2005_25&
article=article23