SS: Fees-free was a flagship policy of the Ardern led Labour Government. When originally introduced, it made your first year of tertiary study fees free. The policy was intended to be expanded to three years over the course of seven years. Due to the pandemic, the expansion was scrapped.
The current government changed the policy, so that the final year of your tertiary study would be fees-free as many people would go to uni to party and then drop out. The scheme has now been scrapped.
For reference without the scheme, annual tuition for domestic students is about 7-10k NZD for most programs. The tuition is already heavily subsidised by international students (who pay like 5x as much) and by the government.
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The scheme had faced quite a bit of criticism because it didn’t do much to help with accessibility for low income background students. Fees are already quite low and student loans are interest free here.
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SS: Fees-free was a flagship policy of the Ardern led Labour Government. When originally introduced, it made your first year of tertiary study fees free. The policy was intended to be expanded to three years over the course of seven years. Due to the pandemic, the expansion was scrapped.
The current government changed the policy, so that the final year of your tertiary study would be fees-free as many people would go to uni to party and then drop out. The scheme has now been scrapped.
For reference without the scheme, annual tuition for domestic students is about 7-10k NZD for most programs. The tuition is already heavily subsidised by international students (who pay like 5x as much) and by the government.
The scheme had faced quite a bit of criticism because it didn’t do much to help with accessibility for low income background students. Fees are already quite low and student loans are interest free here.