Auckland University to pay $120,000 to overcharged students

1.00pm

Overcharged nursing and health science students are getting a refund of $102,354 after a Commerce Commission investigation.

The 18 international students will also get more than $7200 in interest and $14,000 in compensation, the commission said in a statement today.

Thirteen Bachelor of Nursing students were at Auckland University for three years from 2001 and were overcharged $67,994.

Five Bachelor of Health Science students were at the university last year and were overcharged $34,359 in fees, the commission said.

The university conducted an internal review of fees after allegations of overcharging and told the commission the overcharging was unintentional.

It said they were charged fees at the same rates as medical students who attracted a higher fee.

The commission accepted the overcharging was not deliberate and was satisfied it had been rectified by the refund and compensation, its director of fair trading Deborah Battell said.

She said it was unfortunate the commission had to intervene before mistakes were identified and rectified.

In a statement today the university said it was a genuine mistake, which had been rectified.

"Once the Commerce Commission brought it to our attention we reviewed the fees charged to all students in the relevant programmes, refunded the students affected and additionally compensated them for the overcharging," acting vice-chancellor Raewyn Dalziel said.

She said the university had also "addressed" the system that allowed the error to happen.

- NZPA