UC students voice concerns

OLIVIA CARVILLE

Last updated 15:06 15/04/2011

 

Frustrated Canterbury University students have questioned their university's priorities in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Kohan McNab, president of the students association, asked Vice Chancellor Rod Carr several questions on behalf of the student body at a forum today.

He told Carr some students had felt "left out of the loop" after the earthquake and questioned why the university had focused on communicating with international students over local students.

He asked if Canterbury University had focused on international students because they were "cash cows", bringing in  huge amounts of money with their fees.

Carr responded saying it was important to transfer the 130 international exchange students to other universities straight after the earthquake, and to communicate with the 1500 enrolled international students because they had no social or family support in Christchurch.

He said 300 international students had left the university since the earthquake.

"This was not about fees and money, this was about safety and logistics," Carr said.

McNab also asked how the university could ensure students were still getting a high quality degree from Canterbury University when they had lost weeks of class time and were now being lectured from tents.

Carr said he could not compare the quality of learning from last year to this year but told students the university would do everything possible to  "maintain its standards".

"I want to thank the student body for rolling with the punches after the earthquake. My hat is taken off to the students who have done all they can," he said.

He was proud to announce the university would no longer be conducting lectures in tents after easter.

The forum was organised through social networking site Facebook and about 100 students signed up to attend but only a handful showed up.

The event was filmed and will be uploaded onto the internet for other students to watch in their own time.