National student president to meet with Steven Joyce

Media Release – Tuesday 8 October 2013

National student president to meet with Steven Joyce

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce will meet in his Beehive office tomorrow with Pete Hodkinson, President of the NZ Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) to review a representative range of issues facing New Zealand’s 420,000 tertiary students.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to bring Mr Joyce up to speed with the advocacy that our members have been collectively engaged on across the last 18 months to improve the quality of the student experience on the nation’s tertiary education campuses,” says Pete Hodkinson, NZUSA President.
“This will be the first meeting we’ve had with the Minister this year, so there is a lot of ground to cover on issues and topics that are impacting on students and to brief him about some of the proactive initiatives that NZUSA has been putting in place.

“There is no doubt that the changed environment being experienced since voluntary student membership legislation took effect in 2012 has presented an uphill challenge for many of our members, and NZUSA itself, and in some instances has compromised and undermined our overall effectiveness. 

“We appreciate that the Minister has been clear in his directions for the Compulsory Student Services Fee, the fee that is still levied on students to fund a wide range of categories of student services. We have especially appreciated his preference that decisions on the use of the fee should be made jointly with student representatives. Or at a minimum that students should be fully consulted about decisions. 

“At today’s meeting I will be presenting the Minister with research on how an effective student voice is fundamental to higher quality education, and with examples of what can be achieved when the student voice is not side-lined - as it might be under the proposal announced last week to intervene in who sits around the table at university councils,” says Hodkinson.

“I will be highlighting the relationships that our national office has built up over the last two years in constructive engagement with central government agencies, such as StudyLink, to achieve changes that benefit students. I will also be talking to him about our new initiatives like putting in place a nationwide group of Learner Advisory Panels – commenced this month – to provide more feedback about the student experience in order to better inform policy making and practices. 

“Given the importance he gives to students as stakeholders in this country’s future, NZUSA is confident that the Minister will now resume more regular meetings with representatives of the student body, and we will be inviting him to speak to our national Congress next month”.

ENDS

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