Student leaders are alarmed at the Government's latest attempt to cripple students' association, as Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce released draft directions on Student Services Levies last week.
Joyce has composed a list that dictates what services institutions can spend student levies on. The services that are able to be provided are: Advocacy and legal advice, Careers information, Counselling services, Employment information, Financial support and advice, Health services, Media, Childcare services and Sports and recreation facilities.
The Green Party was the sole opponent of the Education Act No. 4 that gave Joyce the power to decide this list of "approved services." Green MP Gareth Hughes claims that "the irony is, coupled with the VSM Bill, it is Steven Joyce, not students, deciding what is appropriate for students."
Hughes is further accusing the Government of intruding into university and polytech operations by proposing stringent regulations for the provision of student support under VSM.
"If Joyce gets his way, students can kiss goodbye to what past generations knew as ‘Orientation’ and they can also forget about having adequate representation. Despite their cultural and democratic importance, these two fundamental aspects of student life failed to make the minister’s shortlist."
Joyce's proposed law changes, coupled with Act's VSM Bill, are trying "to turn our universities and polytechs into soulless grey institutions devoid of the on-campus culture previously enjoyed by so many," says Hughes. "Students will be relegated to little more than fee-paying cogs in a machine, with little actual say over what they get in return for the thousands of dollars they shell out each year
NORML fails to make Joyce's list
