Zero fees: Students say policy had 'huge impact'

First-year students at Wellington's Victoria University would not have enrolled this year without the government's zero-fees policy, they say. 

There's been a 0.3 percent increase in university enrolments in 2018, bucking an official forecast for another fall in student numbers in the wake of last year's 1000-student drop.

Universities NZ chairperson Stuart McCutcheon told Nine to Noon today the policy had made next to no impact.

However, first-year tertiary students told Checkpoint they would not have enrolled this year if it were not for the zero-fee policy.

Victoria University BA student Anastasia said the scheme had a "huge impact" on her decision to study.

"It was good financially for me because then I could help out at home as well," she said.

"I was going to do a gap year and save up because that's what a lot of people advised me to do."

Weltec cookery student Zekiel Bullen said without the policy he would probably still be at school.

"I'm only 16 so I don't really want the debt," he said.

"It does help a lot for a young student."

Victoria University of Wellington Students Association president Marlon Drake said it was not just school-leavers who were benefiting from the policy.

"I know of a lot of students who are actually not straight out of high school, so they've worked a few years and they actually waited for a policy like this before they came," he said. 

Tertiary Education Commission figures showed enrolments in all forms of tertiary education in April were down 0.2 percent or 248 students on the same time last year. 

The government had budgeted for a 3 percent increase in equivalent full-time students in 2018, or about 2000 extra students.