Victoria University Council have voted to raise domestic student course fees by two per cent in 2017.
The motion was passed during last week’s University Council meeting.
The university’s driving argument for the increase was based on the current funding model prescribed by the government not being sustainable.
VUWSA president Jonathan Gee and Academic Vice President Jacinta Gulasekharam, the only students who sit on the council, both voted against the increase.
VUWSA president Jonathan Gee urged council members to “start a genuine conversation with students about how their fees are set and where they’d like them to go.”
“It’s about valuing students as partners, and being open to changing what we have always done. Until that happens, I cannot support an increase in fees,” he said.
University Chancellor Sir Neville Jordan made a point of noting that it is already “more than $300 less expensive to study humanities and social sciences at undergraduate level at Victoria than it is at a number of other institutions.”
The council also voted to increase the Student Services Levy (SSL) by approximately 1.75 per cent.
The SSL is used to fund services for students not covered by tuition fees such as health services, financial support and advice, student advocacy, Salient, and student representation.