{"id":422117,"date":"2026-05-11T10:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T10:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422117\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T10:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T10:30:09","slug":"it-will-be-very-disruptive-grant-robertson-on-scrapping-of-fees-free-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422117\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It will be very disruptive’: Grant Robertson on scrapping of fees-free policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grant<\/p>\n

\nGrant Robertson says scrapping the policy will reduce accessibility and inclusion for students.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n

Scrapping of the fees-free policy for tertiary education will be “very disruptive” to students and their families, says former finance minister Grant Robertson<\/p>\n

The scheme was introduced under Jacinda Ardern’s government and changed by the current government to cover the final year of study.<\/p>\n

Finance minister Nicola Willis confirmed on Friday<\/a> the scheme will get the chop in the upcoming Budget – adding that that students completing their tertiary studies this year remained eligible for fees-free.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Morning Report the harsh reality was the scheme had been “quite a failure”<\/a>, and it was better to stop it and redirect some of that funding to trades training.<\/p>\n

Former Labour minister – and now University of Otago Vice Chancellor – Grant Robertson told Checkpoint on Monday that students and parents have been budgeting with fees-free in mind.<\/p>\n

“Really that’s my concern in an environment where I see the impact of the cost of living on the young people around us here at the university and on their parents,” he said;<\/p>\n

Robertson said it’s expensive going to university, polytechnic or starting an apprenticeship, and scrapping the policy will reduce accessibility and inclusion for students.<\/p>\n

“We’ll see what the government does with the money, and the trades is certainly an area where we want to include more people, but fees-free already did an element of that.”<\/p>\n

He wanted the government to investment in tertiary education and research in the upcoming budget, saying it lifts the country’s economic prospects.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grant Robertson says scrapping the policy will reduce accessibility and inclusion for students. Photo: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-422117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}