Overseas students hit by rise
International students at the University of Waikato will be hit with a significant fee increase next year.
Fees are set to rise four per cent from 2014, potentially adding more than $1000 to each degree, but bringing in an estimated $1 million in extra revenue for the university.
Chief financial officer Andrew McKinnon told a university council meeting yesterday that financial pressures were getting increasingly hard to manage, and the university had to look ‘‘wherever we can’’ to cover them.
‘‘The university is in a very challenging space in terms of its economic environment. There is no increase in funding from Government, which is $70 odd million out of our $200 odd million.’’
Mr McKinnon said there were few areas the university could grow revenue, and the fee rise would help offset large costs the university would have to face next year – including an increase in staff salaries.
The planned four per cent rise is 1.5 per cent higher than the 2013 increase, and will mean an international student who enrols for an undergraduate engineering degree would have to pay $1149 on top of the current $28,730 charge.
‘‘It’s a very small portion of our total revenue, it’s just the fact that if we are to cover our increased costs we have to look wherever we can.’’
International fees weren’t the only financial matter under scrutiny yesterday, with a financial report for the four months to April 30 also showing the university is forecast to face a shortfall of $1.5 million in Government funding by the year’s end. As a result of an underwhelming result in the last round of the performance based research funding (PBRF), and a shortfall in student enrolments, the university has advised some faculty deans of budget cuts.
‘‘Core services will still be maintained, but those additional things that we may have liked to do they will be reduced,’’ Mr McKinnon said. Although the university’s six-yearly PBRF results improved, it did not improve against other universities across New Zealand.
‘‘That’s quite significant, it does hurt,’’ Mr McKinnon said. ‘‘But it’s not as large as some other universities.’’
Fulltime student enrolments were also forecast to be under budget, meaning about $1 million worth of funding will have to be paid back to the Government.