Massey is about to overhaul your non-tuition fees. Do they care what you think? Yeah, nah.

Student associations have felt rushed by the University seeking student consultation on proposed changes to non-tuition fees from 2022 onwards. These non-tuition fees include the compulsory student services levy, the recreation centre fee for Albany and Manawatū students, and the building levy for Manawatū students.  

Student associations were sent a document detailing the proposed changes to non-tuitions fees from 2022 onwards on Tuesday 9 March. The document outlines three approaches to this single non-tuition fee that Massey can choose from to fix its invoices and address inequity, detailing how each option will affect various groups of students. 

The first option is a per-credit, per-campus model, which charges a set cost per credit that is based on the campus that you study at. Executive Director of Student Experience Amy Heise says, “For example if you take 15 credits, and we’ve said it’s $3 a credit in Auckland, then you pay 3 x 15… The consequence of that is that the non-tuition fee for a part time student goes down and the non-tuition fee for a full-time student goes up, because the calculations we have done for this has maintained the total amount of income as the same amount to the year previous. Otherwise, we’d have to close some stuff.” She says that students would experience the most variance in their costs with the first option; about 10,000 students will end up paying 20% or more extra, while the other two models have much smaller increases spread out further. 

Option two is a single base rate that all students pay, full-time and part-time. On top of that is a per credit cost, but unlike option one, this is the same across all three campuses. Distance student will still pay a different rate however. “This one out of all the models creates kind of a closer match for more students [than option one] … it has a pretty good spread and it gets rid of that thing where Auckland is paying more than Wellington,” Heise remarks.  

The third option is another single base rate, but with a different per-credit cost across campuses. Heise notes, “There is still a little bit of an inequity if you’re a part-time student, you’re paying a bit more than you are at a per-credit rate… [However] this would mean that full-time Auckland students don’t have as big a hit by that because we’ve got this base rate, but they are still paying more and differently from the other campuses,” 

As of the week ending 7 March, Massey had spoken to all four student associations about the proposed changes. They were informed that the deadline for the consultation was 29 March. 

Albany Students Association president Benjamin Austin says that this timeframe doesn't allow for “adequate student consultation or student consultation at all”. 

Massey at Wellington Student Association (MAWSA) president Tessa Guest agrees that 19 days isn’t long enough for the consultation process. “It’s great that they are using us as a touch point and giving us the option to make the call ourselves or consult with students, but I don’t think it's actually our job to do the consulting. Yes, we have a better reach to students, but we’re still strapped for resources and don’t have a whole lot of time to be doing consulting for the University.” 

Massey @ Distance presidents Jacalyn Clare and Jax Watt say it is too early in the process of consultation for comprehensive information, but they have received advice from NZUSA on how to look into the status of fees and levies at Massey compared to other universities. 

 Heise says Massey has been working on changing the way that non-tuition fees work for about a year now. She explains that the central problem Massey wants to fix is an issue with difficult-to-read invoices, but says that at the same time this is also an opportunity to consider other issues with the fees and address some inequities with the system. 

“We’ve got some inequities, depending on whether you are part time or full time, and whether you are on a certain campus and whether you are distance or internal… So, what we’re suggesting is that those other levies, that are paid on some campuses, are actually rolled into a single non-tuition fee that students pay and it is the compulsory student services levy, so it's governed by the ministerial director that governs what that can be spent on and it’s done in consultation with students.”  

This is part of a larger move by Massey attempting to move away from separate locally-based funding and into a single pool of funds to distribute nationally to provide the best services everywhere, according to Heise. “When that money doesn’t need to be spent at Auckland anymore, it can be redistributed to other campuses that don’t have rec centre services for example. If we went down the track of a fee that was different for each campus, then we would have to consider how we deliver services differently on each campus, which I think is not really where we want to head, because we do want to have an equivalent experience for our students across campuses.” 

How will these proposed changes affect students? 

Heise says every option detailed in the document has its impact on different groups of students, and that it is about what is the highest priority to fix when it comes to picking one. She says regardless of the outcome, the conversation these proposed changes will spark is essential for future improvements. “Part of the rationale for doing this bit of work is that it will allow us to have those debates and look at the impact and actually give everyone good information about what would happen if we did that, how would that affect everyone’s fees.” She emphasizes that part of the difficulty in deciding how the fees will be distributed is related to how hard it is to gauge how much each student utilizes the services it pays for. “The levy is a lot like insurance. Some of the stuff you’d definitely use hopefully and some of it is there just in case.”  

Distance student Angus feels that option three sounds the fairest, because option one decreases fees for part-time students when they may have more time to utilise services and option two doesn’t represent the current disparity between number and quality of the facilities being offered across campuses in its flat rate.  

Full-time Wellington-based student Jamie, on the other hand, believes that option one is the fairest for all students. “Mature part-time students often fill up their week with other endeavours such as working, which means they may be off campus more than the typical full-time undergrad straight out of school, and utilising these facilities that their fees pay for less. If I could choose, option one seems the most egalitarian. But it is different for everyone.” 

Regardless of which option is picked, the total amount that Massey receives from levies is still pegged to increase for next year, which Heise says is necessary. “We’ve compared the previous year with this year, and we have incorporated for 2022 a slight increase in the total amount received. We haven’t increased the levy for a long time, it’s getting very problematic. We’ve had to be really tight about increasing anything.” 

According to both Heise and Tessa, Massey will still pay less than other universities for its levy fees. MAWSA Academic Officer Phoebe Bridgers notes that the largest increase that a student could have to their total fees from the options presented in the document will be about $50.  

If you want to have your say, you still have time to contact your student association and be included in the consultation process. Better get in quick though.