Te Aka Tauira – the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA) is staggered by the Government’s failure to fund tertiary education, and failure to provide any meaningful support for students struggling through with the cost of living, a lack of jobs and gutting of public services.

VUWSA President Liban Ali says, “This Budget fails students. Costs are rising, but support isn’t. Students are working longer hours to get by. Study is harder. Life is harder. We asked for help – the Government gave us nothing. Freezing student allowance thresholds is a cut by stealth.

This Budget ignores the student cost of living crisis. It makes it harder to live, and harder to learn. Once again, students have left behind. We deserve better, we won’t forget this.”

This year’s Budget has nothing to offer students, with bread-and-butter initiatives being underfunded by the Government. Inflation adjusted, Budget 2025 has only made room for a measly 3% increase in student allowance funding and has also made it harder for young people to access the Jobseeker Benefit by introducing means testing.

VUWSA is also concerned by the 20% reduction in funding for essential student loan management services while, as has been recently reported, students have already been facing increased wait times to access essential funds from StudyLink.

“It is disgusting to see the Government continue to overlook student poverty.” VUWSA’s Welfare VP, Josh Robinson says, “In the aftermath of the rise of public transport fares, increased energy prices, and cost of living, the Government is both setting a price on the human right to education and robbing it from us in broad daylight.”

VUWSA is disheartened by the Government’s continued failure to adequately fund the Tertiary Sector. “Education is a public good.” said Academic VP Ethan Rogacion, “It is time that our Government starts acting like it.” This year’s Budget allows Universities to hike fees up to 6% and sets aside some funding for some STEM subjects but still comes at significant costs to students.

“The Government has disestablished the PM’s Scholarship for Asia and South America from June, has made University more expensive, and has pitted faculties against each other by increasing funding for STEM at the cost of humanities subjects,” Rogacion says.

“Our Government has a responsibility to its students, to ensure that all young people can get an education that helps them achieve their goals, and does not merely push them into fields they deem to be economically useful.”

In addition, Engagement VP Aidan Donoghue adds, “To give with one hand, and take with the other, is not growth, it is stagnation. I am puzzled as to who or what this goal of growth is for? It certainly isn’t for women, students, the poor, health or education?

“It's matter of choice, and this government is making active choices that undermine decades of social investment. The average student has thousands of dollars invested in them, and all the opportunities they’ve been promised have been ripped out from under them.”

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