‘Rebirth’ for New Zealand student unionism

Student unionism is undergoing a “rebirth” in New Zealand, as representative bodies construct a replacement for their 96-year-old national organisation.

The “storied” history of the New Zealand Union of Student Associations (NZUSA) includes successfully agitating for tertiary education funding reforms, increases to student allowances, reductions in annual fee rises and the elimination of interest on student loans. NZUSA also campaigned against the criminalisation of same-sex relationships, the Vietnam War and South African apartheid, among other broad issues.

Co-presidents who have graduated to high-profile careers in mainstream politics include former opposition leader Andrew Little, former deputy prime minister Grant Robertson, current shadow workplace relations minister Camilla Belich and former Labour Party general secretary Andrew Kirton.

Activism by NZUSA and its constituent associations helped delay voluntary student membership (VSM), a drive to outlaw compulsory student union fees, for well over a decade. In a celebrated 2011 protest, the president of Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) locked himself in a cage on the university lawn for 42 hours in midwinter.

But VSM’s 2012 introduction spelt the beginning of the end for NZUSA, as constituent associations struggled financially and quit the umbrella body over fears of incurring extra financial liabilities, including tax bills, and grievances over membership fees and how they were spent.

Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA) was the most recent to depart in August 2024. “Growing financial and structural troubles have pushed the organisation into irrelevance and crushing debt,” the union’s Salient magazine reported.

By then the national organisation was effectively defunct with an expired website. No tweets have been posted since late 2022 and no media releases since mid-2023.

Last year was the “breaking point” for NZUSA, according to current VUWSA president Liban Ali. “The best thing for us at that moment was to get out of there as quickly as we could.”

But Ali and student representatives at six of the seven other universities are setting up a replacement body, the Aotearoa Tertiary Students Association (ATSA), where membership will – initially, at least – be free. The aim is “to incentivise people to jump on board” without the “conversations that plagued the previous student body”, he said.

“I think it’s massively important. My stance was always that we need a national body where we can reflect what’s happening on a national scale. Places such as the UK do it really well.

“I want to set a foundation that people can follow for a couple years. I understand that we’re not going to get things overnight.”

OUSA remains technically a member of NZUSA along with student unions at Massey and Lincoln universities. OUSA president Liam White said NZUSA had been a “real passion project” for his predecessors and its demise was “really quite heartbreaking”.

“We’re in the process of putting the association into liquidation,” he said. “We’re optimistic that we should be able to wind [it] up…with fairly minimal problems.”

White said student union leaders were “super-excited” about the replacement body. “We’re still nailing down that nitty-gritty of what will our constitution look like, what’s our strategic plan, what are our main values, that sort of thing.

“It’s a bizarre feeling, being on the ground of something that we hope will be historic like NZUSA. This year is really a rebirth of student unionism in New Zealand.”

He said the main policy focuses would be on rectifying the “structural limitations” on student associations in New Zealand, including VSM which had “left a pretty dark cloud” over the movement, convincing the University of Canterbury Students’ Association – which is yet to sign on – to join, and continuing NZUSA’s unfinished work in securing payment for compulsory student placements.

“The through line that sort of got me involved with student politics, and politics in general, is it can be better. We just have to ask and try.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com