Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Aidan Donoghue: Victoria University Student Association President on the Fees Free scheme and the impact of ending it

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Aidan Donoghue: Victoria University Student Association President on the Fees Free scheme and the impact of ending it · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So, Tertiary Education Minister, this is Penny Simmons, you know
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the taxpayers, when we did the Labour introduced the fees-free
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: policy for the universities, well, $ 2 billion, $ 1. 25 billion of
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: that was pocketed by the universities. She says the studies
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: now show that the policy didn't do what it was
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: meant to do, i.e. lift enrolment. Aidan Donoghue, Views of President,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: that's Vic Uni, good morning.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: So, more proof that it was a waste of time.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Well, I think saving student money in such a tough
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: environment is never a waste of time in my view.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Get a job.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Well, I'd love to try. I'm certainly out there cracking in.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Many of us are, but they seem to be in Australia.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, fair enough. How many students do you think do
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: do part-time work with their studies?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: About 63% we found, which is a bit higher than
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: in recent years.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And what sort of hours generally are you doing?
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: The most common amount of hours were between 10 and
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: 20 a week that we found when we surveyed our students.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: You're doing, I mean, the view as a president would
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: be considered a part-time job, wouldn't it? Because you get
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: paid for it, don't you?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: It is. It's a full-time role. Oh, right. And I
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: do my master's on the side, yeah.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it's the other way around. You've got your
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: wife and then your mistress.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: How about this policy? Can you see any benefit to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: what was done from... Think outside of being a student
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: for a second and think about being a taxpayer with
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: your job hat on. Any benefit outside of what was
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: supposed to happen? I.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: out of removing C3. I think ultimately if that money's
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: getting put somewhere else in the tertiary sector, that would
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: be a good start, but we're not exactly seeing a
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: one-to-one parity for that funding being rearranged now.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: So what does that mean, that the universities are going
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: to be out of pocket and come cap in hand again,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: or what?
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: It's either the universities will come and look for more,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: or they're going to have to put that funding change
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: more into students. It's We've seen, you know, 20% increase
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: in the last three years of our fees. So I
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: think with the, you know, diminishing gains, you know, you
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: get from increasing fees on students and you'll see less enrolments,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: universities are going to hit a wall pretty soon about
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: how they're going to fund the entire operation. All right.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Aidan, good to have you on the show this morning
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: as always. Thank you. Aidan Donoghue, Views of President with us.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to Newstalk ZB from 5am weekdays or follow the podcast
• 2:34
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