Among the many things being dumped out at the end of the year by the government, was the Tertiary Education Strategy. The Press reported it focusing on changes to funding based around student performance. That is an interesting issue for debate, but further down the story is a very distrurbing signal.

Last night, Tolley said the current regime was “inflexible for providers and difficult to monitor for students. We are therefore looking at ways to simplify the regulation of fees.”

This is code for saying that the fee maxima policy that has limited fee increases to no more than 5% over recent years is going to go. This will see a return to the huge fee increases of the 1990s. In the two years I was the student representative of the Otago University Council fees went up by 18% and 15% respectively. Those sorts of increases contributed massively to student debt and ultimately put tertiary education beyond the reach of some people. Merry Christmas tertiary students of the future, from Anne Tolley.