Government must stop giving handouts to universities returning surpluses

Government must stop giving handouts to universities returning surpluses

Responding to news that a number of universities returned significant surpluses last year while still calling for government handouts, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“Universities across New Zealand have been crying poverty for months, and in response this week the Government announced it would be handing universities another $128 million of taxpayers’ money.

“As it turns out, a number of universities were not being particularly upfront with the public.

“For example, Victoria University has been one of the squeakiest wheels, when it turns out that last year they returned an operating cash surplus of $31.4 million. Worse still, last year they also found the spare money to spend a net $44.8 million on land and new buildings.

“Clearly this shows that some cash-grabbing unis are not in anything close to the financial dire straits their PR teams would have you believe.

“Rather than caving in to such demands, the Government should do its due diligence before throwing away hundreds of millions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”