As students face cost-of-living pressures, an increase in parking fee increase at Western Sydney University’s Parramatta South campus has become a concern for some students who rely on driving to campus.
The cost of a one day ‘pay and display’ parking ticket at Parramatta South increased from $9.50 to $12.50 in 2025, leaving some students questioning whether the higher fee is justified and how the revenue generated is allocated.
“I don’t think it’s fair, especially when it’s busy and there’s no parking available,” said Aisha, a WSU first-year construction management student.
Parking rates vary across WSU campuses, and students can purchase single-day tickets as well as half yearly or annual permits. There more than 7,000 parking spaces across five of the university’s campuses for different permit types. However, at Parramatta South, parking spaces can fill quickly during peak times.
Like many students, Bianca, studying psychology and social sciences, budgets for parking and questions where the revenue collected from parking is going.
“I just tap and hope it goes to something good,” she said.
Bianca attends class at Parramatta South three days a week but has found it so difficult to find an available spot in the busy parking lot, that she “gave up” on paying for the blue permit to access both North and South campuses. Instead, she switched to paying for the cheaper yellow permit, which she uses to park on the North Campus before walking about 12 minutes to the South Campus, sometimes in the scorching heat.
A WSU spokesperson maintains the university has taken a “measured approach” to parking fees and in a statement revealed the revenue raised from parking fees is reinvested into maintaining and improving parking infrastructure and transport related initiatives across campuses.
“The revised rate reflected local market conditions, parking demand and the rising costs of maintaining and operating parking facilities, while ensuring continued investment in parking and transport services,” said the spokesperson.
Some students, like Norah, drive to campus and pay $12.50 for a parking ticket despite attending just one hour of class each week. After class, Norah often gives her ticket to students entering the car park to help ease the cost for others.
“We don’t know what people are going through at the moment, they could be struggling financially, I understand and it’s sometimes really difficult if you’re here more than once a week,” she said.
The WSU spokesperson said the university continues to balance affordability considerations with the need to maintain safe, accessible, and sustainable parking and transport services that meet the needs of its growing community.
Norah said she felt the increase was difficult to justify given she has seen minimal improvement to the parking infrastructure and many students are struggling financially.
“I feel like the parking is average at best. I feel like there could be more parking and if there was more maybe I would be like yeah, I can see why I’m paying that much, but to raise prices and not see much of a difference…it’s not great,” she said.
