Cheaper public transport fares for Wellington students could soon be on the horizon, but city ratepayers could be the ones funding the discount.

Student discounts on Wellington public transport could soon be a reality, but they could also come at the expense of city ratepayers.

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said on Tuesday he would look at opportunities for the city council to provide financial support to help get cheaper fares when the 2018-19 Annual Plan was decided on.

"This will go a long way for students … I'm committed to working with the regional council towards this."

MAARTEN HOLL/ FAIRFAX NZ Wellington Mayor Justin Lester says he will look at opportunities for the city council to help fund cheaper fares when the Annual Plan is decided later this year.

Lester pledged to get tertiary fare concessions during his election campaign last year.

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He claimed his student concession policy would knock $3.80 off the cost of a three-zone return trip for students, provided they were using a Snapper or Mana card, saving students more than $900 a year.

SUPPLIED Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association president Rory Lenihan-Ikin says the capital had fallen behind the rest of the world in terms of support for tertiary students.

The Wellington City Council does not set public transport fares - that is a job for the Greater Wellington Regional Council.

The regional council will vote next week on whether to review fares and consider a tertiary student discount.

The Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association (VUWSA) has been lobbying the regional council for years to introduce a tertiary student discount. It is asking for a 50 per cent discount on all Wellington buses and trains.

SUPPLIED Porirua student Saleima Samuelu says she has stayed in the 24-hour university labs overnight to save money on public transport.

It will be making a presentation to the regional council at a meeting on Wednesday.

The council has previously favoured an off-peak discount instead of a student one, believing it would help students along with other disadvantaged sectors of society, such as those on invalid benefits.

But VUWSA president Rory Lenihan-Ikin was confident the regional council would finally take notice after the public support shown by various councillors and Wellington's mayor to support an initiative in 2018.

There were countless stories across the Wellington region of students forking out hundreds of dollars a week just to get to and from classes, he said.

With a student housing shortage looming in central Wellington the logical solution was to encourage students to live further out of the city. But that won't be any more affordable without a student transport discount, Lenihan-Ikin said.

"If this continues, students will look outside of Wellington to complete their studies and the capital will lose thousands of young, creative minds from their future workforce."

Porirua student Saleima Samuelu, who recently moved to central Wellington, said when she was still living in Porirua, she would sometimes stay in the university's 24-hour labs to avoid the travel back and forth and cut costs.

"If there isn’t enough to get to class you just gotta prioritise which classes can be missed and borrow notes off a classmate."