Victoria University is putting its domestic tuition fees up<\/a> next year. The government has raised the cap on fees increases from 2.85% to 6%. Victoria University in Wellington has immediately done so<\/a> but most other universities are expected to follow their lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tertiary education, and loans to pay for it, are a huge financial commitment that can have far-reaching impacts that your developing frontal lobe doesn\u2019t comprehend. A massive 93% of the country\u2019s $2.375billion overdue student loan debt <\/a>is owed by people overseas, unsurprising given that\u2019s when interest kicks in for most. (Inland Revenue is cracking down<\/a>, and defaulting can mean trouble \u2013 even arrest, which happened last month to one woman<\/a> who owed $58k.)<\/p>\n Generations of New Zealanders have sat around tables here and abroad nursing beers and comparing their student debt. But who actually had the roughest ride?<\/p>\n 1960s and 1970s: Cheap if you could get in<\/p>\n Once upon a time, the state paid via the bursary system \u2013 established in 1962, and judged on your academic performance<\/a> in the university bursary exam. The Fees Bursary covered all tuition fees for full-time study. Those in the top 3-4% of scholarship grades got more money, and there were also allowances for boarding and travel. Passing three units in a bachelors of art or science meant you got an allowance too, according to 1966\u2019s An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand<\/a>, which doubled in your fourth year. \u201cNo special obligation is laid on the student,\u201d explained Department of Education senior inspector Harry Archibald Reeves<\/a>. In 1966 a science course at Otago was \u00a380 a year, and arts \u00a360<\/a>. In 1976 a new tertiary bursary was in the works (declared a \u201cshambles<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n Studying became more expensive in the late 1980s. By 1982, the entry fee to sit the bursary exams was $53<\/a> \u2013 half the $100 awarded for a B bursary (an A bursary was $200). By 1985, only one in every 15 nursing students was offered bursary<\/a> (fixed at $10 a week since 1972) with 160 available. In 1989 Labour introduced a means-tested allowance and university tuition fees. Set at $129 annually, they rose to $1,250 the following year.\u00a0<\/p>\n The flat rate was scrapped by National in 1991 and the student loan scheme was introduced in 1992. From then until 2000 the country had an \u201cunregulated fee environment<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 It was a grim time to study. \u201cWhen I started at university in \u201993, student loans had just been introduced. Fees were around $1,500 ($3,200 today),\u201d one unlucky soul recalls. \u201cBut you could draw on the loan to the tune of tens of thousands across your degree for anything you pleased. This provided a timely stimulus in a straitened economy, with a particular boost to fashion boutiques, hostelries and drug dealers.\u201d Interest was market rate and comprehension of compound rates were nil, so it set much of their generation up for a future of \u201cservitude and misery\u201d.<\/p>\n Back then, everyone paid interest on student loans and it began when your loan did. Eventually, Labour made some changes; in 2000 students still studying were no longer charged interest.<\/p>\n At least flats were cheap, right? In 1998 Dunedin, $65 would get you a \u201cmassive\u201d room in a \u201ctotal shit hole\u201d, but it was still easy to rack up debt. Part-time work was hard to come by, so if you needed money, you could call MSD for a living costs deposit. The minimum was $400 and the phone system was automated. \u201cI owned a lot of Nom*D and many CDs,\u201d one Spinoff staffer remembers. \u201cNo one spent their course-related costs on course-related costs back then.\u201d By the time they\u2019d left university six years later, they owed more than $75k.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the late 1990s, undergrad fees for one Auckland student were around $2,000 a year, with post-grad more than $5,000. A loan covered it all and was $40,000 by the time they finished. They were flatting ($90 a week in Eden Terrace) but were ineligible for the allowance, so borrowed living and course related costs, in addition to working, to get by. \u201cI was 17 and could just call the helpline and get $1,000 immediately deposited into my account.\u201d There were other workarounds too. \u201cLots of people were getting married to access the student allowance \u2013 that somehow overrode the parental means testing.\u201d<\/p>\n 2000s-2010s: Students start taking shit seriously (kind of)<\/p>\n In 2006 all loans became interest-free as long as you met requirements for New Zealand residency, but debt was scary. \u201cDesperate not to get a student loan\u201d, one Spinoff staffer qualified for a scholarship and student allowance, making 2010s-era University of Auckland (when a full-time semester was $3,000-$4,000) economically doable. Student allowance was $215 and most rooms, in a landlords market, were $140-180 a week. \u201cThere was a lot of protest at the time that student allowance\/living costs barely covered rent.\u201d Unlike the halcyon days of calling an automated phone line, navigating Studylink was \u201ca nightmare\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n After winning a partial scholarship, one Auckland University student turned to MSD for the rest. They had a part-time job, \u201cbut still took all the government money\u201d they could. Qualifying for the allowance, they also borrowed living and course related costs, and a loan for fees.\u00a0 Rent cost under $200 a week and food was $100 max. By the time they left in 2017 (without finishing) their loan was nearly $40k.<\/p>\n A new generation is enjoying (more) affordable study thanks to the fees-free year. Introduced by Labour to make education accessible, by the end of 2019 less than a third of recipients <\/a>came from low-decile schools. The majority of fees-free students were enrolled in medicine at Otago<\/a>. By January 2025 National had swapped the fees-free policy to the final year (rewarding commitment<\/a>) with \u201cno double-dipping<\/a>\u201d allowed.<\/p>\n Getting in before that was someone enrolled at AUT in 2019. \u201cMy first year was free!\u201d After that each paper cost around $800-$1,000. Flatting cost $200 a week for rent and utilities. They qualified for the full student allowance (\u201cI have no bank of mum and dad\u201d) but borrowed course-related costs. They left, without graduating, $12,000 in debt and wonder about the value-for-money of studying during a pandemic. \u201cStudents during the Covid years (especially in Auckland) shouldn\u2019t have had to pay full tuition when we weren\u2019t on campus for large chunks of the year. Not getting a discount in that respect kinda sucked.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Remote learning also impacted expectations around flexibility. In 2022 over 3000 people petitioned<\/a> for all lectures at Victoria University ($15.7 million in the red that year<\/a>) to be recorded, partly due to students \u201chaving to sacrifice time in class to pay bills<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Universities have been trying<\/a> to get students back in lecture halls. Domestic enrolments are up 4.5% (and almost 8% at Auckland and Canterbury)<\/a>.\u00a0Uni halls are going up, literally. Auckland University built a \u201cUS-inspired\u201d student village<\/a> where the cost \u2013 which ranges from<\/a> $350 a week for a single to $625 for a family unit \u2013 includes rent, utilities and wifi. More multi-million dollar builds<\/a> are planned.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prices are rising too<\/a>. A single room in a catered hall at Vic will be $578 a week next year<\/a>, up from $512. At Canterbury, you could pay as much as $766<\/a>. Residents at Auckland University halls initiated a rent strike<\/a> in 2014 after an 8% increase, demanding reductions and arguing full-time students<\/a> \u201cshouldn\u2019t be expected to work 10, 20, even 30 hours just to pay rent\u201d.<\/p>\n As The Spinoff heard this week<\/a>, in 1975 a full-time student with a pre-school child and no income found their benefit \u201cliveable<\/a>\u201d. A similar situation in 2025 would qualify for a student allowance of up to $519.81 a week after tax, but average Auckland rent is $689<\/a> a week and on-campus childcare at the University of Auckland<\/a> costs a student between $308-$177.50 full-time.<\/p>\n International students pay a lot more (at Auckland an undergrad ranges from $48,310 to $86,561 for 2025) and universities have been able to charge them full fees since the Education Amendment Act was passed in 1990. More than 20,000 international students<\/a> are currently enrolled full time at New Zealand\u2019s eight institutions.<\/p>\nJust 1967 things (Image: The Press, Christchurch City Libraries)
\n1980s: OK groms, time to start paying<\/p>\nUniversity of Canterbury students and staff protest rising tertiary fees in 1989 (Photo courtesy of Allied Press)
\n1990s: A wild west of unregulated fees and high-interest loans<\/p>\nOtago University in 1980 from the Eric Young Collection Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
\n2020: The stakes are high, so is the cost of everything<\/p>\n