United Future would abolish tertiary fees and allowance

  • 30/07/2017

United Future has launched a policy that would abolish all tertiary education fees and all student allowances in one fell swoop.

Instead, the only money students will need to borrow will be living costs, at their own choice, leader Peter Dunne said.

His party would also change the maximum living costs' entitlement so that it's aligned with the cost of living in the student's region, rather than a flat rate for all.

"We follow comparable models across Europe in offering lower barriers for all tertiary education in order to deliver a better tomorrow for New Zealand," Mr Dunne said.

United Future said the current student allowance system is "patently unfair" and can be abused, and would instead funnel that money into helping fund the zero-fees policy.

"A zero fees policy also addresses one of the illusions of the current policy, where it is assumed that tuition fees cover all or most of the costs of study, when in fact the taxpayer already covers the majority of tuition costs," it said.

The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll has United Future polling at 0.3 percent.

Newshub.