Uni halls were a rite of passage, now they’re a financial headache

Halls of residence are supposed to help students transition from living at home to living independently but the fees charged can now reach $30,000 a year.

StudyLink loans won’t cover that level of fees which leaves students relying on parents or parttime jobs – if they can find one.

That’s raised fears that halls, which have been an important part of New Zealand universities for more than 100 years, are becoming out of reach for all but those from the most well-off backgrounds.

Students spoken to by Re: News said the fees are difficult to meet.

Chloe Miller, 18, has just finished her first year at Victoria University of Wellington.

She paid $524 per week to live in Te Puni Village, which is one of the most popular halls at the university and a two-minute walk from its Kelburn campus.

Chloe is getting $323 per week from StudyLink to pay for halls, which she will have to pay back as part of her student loan.

That leaves a shortfall of $201 per week which her parents have agreed to cover.

Most halls designed for first-year students provide three meals a day. Next year, catered halls will cost between $15,000 and $30,000 for roughly 40 weeks of accommodation. The fees also cover utilities, pastoral care and social events.

“Definitely was a struggle,” Chloe says. “I mean, it's not easy to find that amount of money.”

Part-way through the year, Chloe started a part-time job and tries to regularly contribute a portion of her paycheck towards halls fees but says it isn’t enough.

“I don’t think I’d be able to pay for halls without my parents, no. Unless I maybe found another job or two? And even then, that’s incredibly difficult, currently living in Wellington as a student, there are no jobs available.”

The maximum living costs payment that StudyLink will loan a student is $323 per week.

Next year, the average cost of a single room in a catered hall will be between $460-616 per week.

That means students like Chloe will have to front up between $140-300 on average every week.

On the minimum wage, that equals six to 12 hours of work per week that a student would have to do just to pay for halls.

This doesn’t take into account extra money they may need for other expenses, like snacks, clothes and flights to visit family back home.

Sereana Naepi is an associate professor at the University of Auckland who researches inequality in higher education.

“Culturally, university halls are a rite of passage,” Naepi says.

She says living in halls makes it easier for students to find friends, access academic support, go to classes in-person and be immersed in university life.

“The moment that we move to a space where they become unaffordable, that means that first in family, Māori, Pacific, and other minority groups are going to be unable to access the space.”

Naepi says students do better when they come to campus.

Using Auckland as an example, she says for students from Mangere who cannot afford to stay in halls and come from low socio-economic backgrounds, it takes an hour-long bus ride to come to campus and access the services there.

“Increased costs means less diversity, but it also means that some students are getting access to resources that others aren't.”

On the flip side, if halls are only affordable to students from high-income backgrounds, they're not going to meet people outside of those bubbles, and they may not learn what it means to grow up outside a wealthy suburb like Epsom, Naepi says.

Universities told Re: News that halls fees need to cover all of the services provided to students, which can include accommodation, utilities, catering, staff support and social events.

Inflation and the cost of living are driving up the operational costs of halls, they said.

Multiple universities acknowledged the cost of living has been tough on students as well and said they try to keep halls as affordable as possible.

The universities of Auckland, Canterbury and Waikato said when they make a small surplus, it’s reinvested back into halls.

Victoria University said it won’t make a surplus this year or next year, while Otago said its financial outcomes are “commercially sensitive”.

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