Manawatū and Albany students pay more fees than Wellington and distance students

Don’t they know that students need that $106.9 to pay for 2.6 bottles of Ivanov Vodka?

A Massive investigation has revealed that Massey University students who study at the Albany and Manawatū campuses pay more fees than their Wellington and distance-based counterparts. Manawatū students pay $106.90 more, and Albany students pay $157.10 more. 

For Manawatū students, this entails a Palmerston North Building levy of $30.60 and a Palmerston North Recreation Centre levy of $76.30 for a total of $106.90 per year. Albany students pay $157.10 for their Auckland Recreation Centre levy. This figure is on top of the standard Student Services Levy (SSL) rates that are applied to every student, 21% of which goes to “clubs, cultural groups, societies, sport and recreation”, under which fall ‘Recreation Centres’ according to Massey’s SSL categories for 2020.  

According to a Massey University spokesperson, the extra cost is incurred not only for those that study full-time internally, but also to part-time students, even if they only do a single paper at the relevant campus.  

Third year Massey Manawatū student Nate didn’t realise that he was paying these extra fees on top of his SSL, and said it “seems kinda sneaky”. Although he rates the student discount at the gym, he wondered “if I was [enrolled as] a distance student, would I be getting an even lower price?” 

Fourth year Manawatū student Kiana said she understood why students who didn’t use the recreation centres would find it “annoying and unfair”, but is overall more sympathetic to the necessity of the levies. “[Universities] need money as levies to keep shit running,” she said. “Plus, the opportunity and availability to use the Rec Centre is there for all students so it’s not like they’re paying and not getting anything out of it.” 

Third year Albany student Kiedis said that Massey’s justification of the fees were “fucked”. As someone who has never used the Recreation Centre, he finds it “surprising” and “annoying” that he has to pay extra, particularly as members of the public can buy gym memberships, the profits of which he believes should be able to offset these costs to students.  

The Massey University spokesperson said that there are discussions underway to change this for 2022.