Ryan Bridge: What was the point in Fees Free?

Reading this story this morning about Fees Free, you've got to wonder how the policy got through the boffins in Wellington. 

It has, by all accounts, failed to achieve it's objective. 

Did we see floods of people charging into lecture halls and studying at university? No.

Did we see loads of poorer students benefit? No.

What did it cost us, again? $2.6 billion. $350 million last year alone. 

That's one and half brand new Dunedin hospitals. 

This is what it got us:

No increase in participation. 230 students from poor schools were helped. That's 1.3%.

A whopping 70% of the kids who had their university fees paid for (up to $12,000 each) were from above-average socio-economic schools. They were the wealthier kids. 

Did they need it? No. 

I've always backed the interest-free student loan idea. You can borrow, not stress about interest, and work hard to pay it down once you finish. 

But clearly Fees Free was too much of a free lunch. Not enough discipline or focus. 

Now the problem is Winston and National have kept this policy alive, they've just changed it to the final year of study.

The idea is this will encourage students to finish their studies. 

The problem? It's not doing that either. No evidence.

So, you've got to ask, with such a high price tag, is the whole thing worth having at all? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Reading this story this morning about fees free, you've got
to wonder how the policy got through the Boffins and
Wellington in the first place. It has, by all accounts,
failed to achieve its objectives. Did we see floods of
people charging into lecture halls and studying at university? No?
Did we see loads of poorer students benefiting? No? What

(00:20):
did it cost us? Again? Two point six billion dollars
was the policy costing three and a half million last
year alone. That's one and a half brand new Dunedin hospitals.
In case you're interested, and this is what it got us,
No increase in participation. Two hundred and thirty students from
poor schools were helped. This is last year. That is

(00:43):
one point three percent. A whopping seventy percent of the
kids who had their UNI fees paid for up to
twelve thousand dollars each were from above average socioeconomic schools.
They were the wealthier kids, did they No. I've always
backed the interest free student loan idea because you can

(01:05):
borrow and you don't have to stress about the interest
piling up. Then you can work hard to pay it
down once you finish. But clearly fees free was too
much of a free lunch, not enough discipline or focus
in its spending. Now, the problem is that Winston and
National have kept this policy alive. They've just changed it
to the final year of study instead of the first

(01:27):
year of study. The idea is that it'll encourage students
to finish their education, to finish their degrees. The problem
it's not doing that either. There's no evidence that it's
doing that either. So after all of that said and done,
you've got to ask yourself, with such a high price tag,
is the whole thing worth having at all? For more

(01:47):
from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News
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