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Speaker 1: Right act parties. Palme Jit palm Mar has called for

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Speaker 1: Auckland UNI to scrap a wipe up a tomato course.

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Speaker 1: Now what's that in English? It's a course that teaches

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Speaker 1: us about New Zealand life and traditional Milori knowledge to

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Speaker 1: international students. Seven thousand of them have been forced to

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Speaker 1: do the course in twenty twenty five. It's compulsory and

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Speaker 1: here is the rub. It's expensive. It costs five seven

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty dollars. So I got the president with

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Speaker 1: the of the Auckland University Students Association with me right now,

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Speaker 1: Gabriel Boyd, welcome to the showmate.

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Speaker 2: Ah, thank you for having me, angree.

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Speaker 1: Why is this thing so expensive and why is it mandatory?

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Speaker 2: I think it's a little unfair to single out the

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Speaker 2: WTR course being particularly expensive. It's pretty in line with

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Speaker 2: the standard prices for international students, which they're well aware

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Speaker 2: of before they come to the University of Auckland. And

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Speaker 2: even with those prices, we're still by far the most

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Speaker 2: attended university by international students, which hasn't been changing. And

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Speaker 2: why is it mandatory? It's an essential knowledge course for

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Speaker 2: all incoming first years. I don't set the course requirements

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Speaker 2: for students. But looking at the course description and the

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Speaker 2: course reviews of the science class that was piloted last year,

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Speaker 2: it was incredibly popular with the first year students.

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Speaker 1: Does this happen in universities around the world or is

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Speaker 1: this just a New Zealand thing.

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Speaker 2: This being teaching cultural competency. Yeah, yeah, I think it

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Speaker 2: does happen around the world. Obviously, it is going to

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Speaker 2: be university specific as to which what localized to knowledge

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Speaker 2: is taught. I think part of what makes New Zealand

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Speaker 2: so special is the focus that we do have on

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Speaker 2: indigenous studies, coming from the United States, where our indigenous

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Speaker 2: population are largely ignored. I think this is the course

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Speaker 2: I would have loved as a first year and I

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Speaker 2: would have gotten a lot more out of it than

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Speaker 2: my gen ED which I just took the easy course option.

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Speaker 1: Even though it would have cost you five seven hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty dollars extra on top of what you're already paying,

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Speaker 1: and already international students are paying a lot, so.

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Speaker 2: Again it is replacing a jed ED requirement which they

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Speaker 2: would also be paying a similar amount for, So this

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Speaker 2: isn't going to add another five seven hundred on top

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Speaker 2: of what they were already paying.

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Speaker 1: So you believe that this is going to increase and

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Speaker 1: enhance the university's reputation or will it infect turn international

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Speaker 1: students away.

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Speaker 2: I can't say for sure what it'll do. Obviously we're

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Speaker 2: piloting the full roll out this year, or the university

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Speaker 2: is piloting the full roll out this year. I would

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Speaker 2: hope it would be appealing to international students, many of

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Speaker 2: whom do want to learn about New Zealand, even if

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Speaker 2: they're only here just for their But I guess we'll see.

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Speaker 1: With time, all right, Gabriel, I thank you for your time.

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