Students protesting in Dunedin on Thursday.
Photo: KATIE TODD / RNZ
The government has been accused of balancing its books on the backs of already-indebted students, as hundreds marched through cities protesting against the scrapping of the fees free study scheme.
Budget 2026 locked in the removal of the policy that gave students their final year of tertiary education at no cost, following a government announcement in early May.
In Dunedin on Thursday, more than 200 students marched from the University of Otago through the city centre to the Octagon carrying placards and banners.
Second-year student Louis Gerard said the government had made an absurd and selfish decision that would cost him thousands of dollars.
“I’m a second year student. My next year was going to be free and now I’m just going to be in so much more debt. That’s just so angering to me and it’s awesome to see such a big crowd who are also angered,” he said.
Students take to the streets of Dunedin.
Photo: KATIE TODD / RNZ
Kaea Roberts said she attended the Dunedin protest in support of people who could miss out on tertiary study altogether.
“I think about my brother, sitting at home, who is one of these kids who have fallen through the cracks and how the scrapping of the prospect of a one-year apprenticeship or something has kind of dashed his hopes,” he said.
First-year student Alana Meechan said the announcement had come as a deeply unpleasant surprise.
“They’ve basically gone behind our backs and taken away what was promised to us,” she said.
The fees free policy was introduced by the Labour government in 2018, initially covering the first year of tertiary study.
The coalition later shifted the scheme to students’ final year from 2025.
Students protesting the fees free policy.
Photo: KATIE TODD / RNZ
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon earlier said the scheme had been “quite a failure”.
He said the government believed it was better to stop the scheme and redirect some of the funding to trades training.
Current final-year students would still qualify for the scheme but Finance Minister Nicola Willis confirmed anyone with more than a year left in their studies would miss out.
Protest organiser Rosie Cruickshank said the issue went beyond a simple left-versus-right political debate.
While the budget had already been decided, the election had not, she said.
“It’s the perfect moment to push both National to rescind this but also Labour to go further. They had initially promised three years fees free but that was walked back because of the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.
“People are really frustrated and it’s not just this recent attack but the constant increases in fees. Every year, we’ve six per cent fee rises since we started and I think students have just had enough now.”
Co-organiser Liam Calder said financial pressure on students was becoming severe.
“It is getting now to the point where students are starting to skip meals, skipping classes, tuition, racking up loads of debt just to pay for their own rent or groceries,” he said.
“Our message today is really ‘stop balancing the books on the backs of students’.”
Hundreds also rallied at Canterbury University demanding the policy be re-instated, calling for more decision-making transparency and urging the Students’ Association to advocate more strongly on their behalf.
Masters student George Love said he missed out on the first year free when he started his studies and would just miss out on his final year free too.
“Education should be accessible to everyone, it’s a democratic right and it’s crazy this government thinks it can attack us,” he said.
He felt the only chance of the decision being reversed was a change of government.
“There’s a clear divide between the two political states at the moment, the left and the right, and it doesn’t seem like the right really has any interest in people,” he said.
Organiser Ruby Love-Smith said the policy announcement “came out of nowhere” and was devastating for many students, upending carefully constructed budgets.
“I’ve just switched out of law school into a shorter course and while fees free wasn’t the main reason for that, it was definitely the tipping point,” she said.
Love-Smith hoped the nationwide display of student solidarity would show the government the depth of feeling on the issue.
“It’s so important to invest in our young people. This is a government that’s all about investing in education with one hour of maths, reading and writing. This tertiary level is just as important because it’s what gets people into those skilled jobs and incentivising it stops people from going to Australia,” she said.
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