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Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 17. July 18 1977

Overseas Students Fight Back

Overseas Students Fight Back

This forum organised by the Local Action Committee on cutbacks was part of an organised effort to bring in conjunction with a slide show and a photographic display which was on show for two days.

Speakers were Soo Cheng, the local action committee chairperson, Lisa Sacksen (NZUSA President) and James Movick the Nosac Co-ordinator.

Soo Cheng spoke first outlining the efforts of the Local Action Committee in Wellington to get students interested in the campaign, by the publishing of leaflets and other activities. Their efforts have also been aimed at getting the support of members of the Prof. Board and the University Council (which is the main body determining the maximum number of overseas who may be admitted in the following year as students to the University. The results were very encouraging. An amended motion to be put to the Prof. Board will be that University Council "supports all efforts to maintain the 1976 level of Malaysian Students until such time there is an increaseed intake of overseas students from other countries".

Support for Rally

The latest developments from other campus have been very good. Motions put forward to University Council in Canterbury and Lincoln have been supported and University Council in Waikato has expressed its concern that the total no. of overseas students should not be reduced. Support from Trades councils, teachers organisations, churches, and educational institutes has also been good. She emphasised the need for a rally on July 26th to get the message across to the NZ public. Representatives and their supporters will be coming down to Wellington for a rally outside OSAC meeting on July 27th.

The next speaker, Lisa Sacksen, exposed the fallacy of the economic and redistribution argument put forward by the government. She said that it does not cost the NZ government $2,000 a year to educate overseas students. Rather the cost of maintaining overseas students is a small marginal cost for administrative expenses. Whether overseas students are here or not overheads have to be borne. In any case 75% of U expenses goes to staff salaries. She emphasised that the the economic argument was a fraud and that the survey is very important to refute the lies told by the government.

Government Hypocrisy

As to the redistribution, Lisa exposed the intentions of the government by noting that so far there had been an increase of only three students from the South Pacific and none from the Middle East. At the same time there are no moves whatsoever be the government to provide the facilities necessary for the admission of students from the Middle East. She also pointed out the lack of government consultation with the Universities, the OSAC or any student bodies concerned. If the government is really interested in aiding developing countries (as it says it is) why has it made this drastic cut in the number of overseas students without any prior consultation?

James Movik went on to point out the sucess of the other sampuses. He said that overseas students are mainly used to 'gap-fill' the classes in all the faculties except those in Architecture and Medicine. He said that he cannot understand why NZ should spend NZ$21 m to maintain her armed forces in Singapore, except perhaps to protect her trade there!

He criticised the Latos Test which he says is now used as a tool to screen overseas students. Latos has now totally lost its original aim of being diagonistic, i.e. and aid in helping the selection of overseas students entrants and also an aid in identifying overseas students problems areas with a mind to prividing extra training therein. James then pointed out the injustice of forcing students who have to pass NZUE, Bursary or their equivalent such as Cambridge High School Cert. to sit Latos. His words that "it seems that we cannot be trusted to speak English" brought laughter from the floor and brought the forum to a close.