Free study proving popular

More than 2500 students have taken advantage of fees-free tertiary study at Massey University in Palmerston North.

The Government policy was introduced this year, allowing the first year of post-school training or education to be fees-free.

Semester two enrolments are up at Massey’s Manawatu¯ campus, but equivalent full-time students numbers were down slightly, so Massey officials say it’s too early to judge if the semester two increase was because of the new policy.

More than 50,000 students nationally were expected to receive fees-free tertiary education this year, with 41,700 people studying fees-free as of August, 25 per cent more than were enrolled in April.

But overall student numbers declined slightly, down 1174, or 0.4 per cent, on the same time last year, according to the Tertiary Education Commission.

There are 2622 Massey students with at least one course enrolment this academic year eligible for fees-free study. There are 5755 enrolments at Massey’s Manawatu¯ campus and total enrolments across its three campuses, Palmerston North, Wellington and Albany, are 28,874.

Massey spokesman James Gardiner said it was hard to determine what effect the policy had on the university. ‘‘What we do know is that there were more semester two enrolments this year than we would normally expect relative to semester one enrolments and that may reflect a change in enrolment habits, or it may be a one off and it may be partly a result of fees-free.’’

Gardiner said the university had 4672 equivalent full-time students in Manawatu¯ , slightly below where it was this time last year, and 18,740 overall, about the same as last year.

He said with the change in enrolment patterns it was hard to make year-on-year comparisons.

The university was close to its target or down slightly on domestic student numbers and up on international student numbers.

‘‘That might appear to suggest the fees-free policy is not having much impact, but of course there is a declining number of school leavers, so possibly it has helped maintain the numbers higher than they otherwise would have been.

‘‘Another factor is that at times of low unemployment, enrolments tend to flatten off or decrease, and when jobs are harder to find, enrolments tend to go up.’’

Massey University Students’ Association president Michael Salmon said new students were saying having their first year fees-free was great.

‘‘As an organisation, we support education as a right, rather than a privilege.’’