Maharey’s Election Year Tertiary Education Bribe

To Education Reporter

7 August 2001

Maharey’s Election Year Tertiary Education Bribe

“Steve Maharey has announced an election year tertiary education bribe that will hurt over 30,000 students,” said John Reynolds, spokesperson for PTEs receiving EFTS student subsidies.

“The new Tertiary Education Strategic Change Fund will increase funding at public tertiary education providers by over 3% next year. This is on top of the fee freeze money that they have already been offered. It is a blatant bribe to avoid fees going up in election year, but it will harm over 30,000 PTE students. All they did was select the course that met their needs best.”

“The fact is that once you add up all the subsidies, a student taking a course in a public institution will get about 5% more government support than one taking the same course in a private institution. The PTE student will end up paying higher fees, but the course will meet the same quality standards in both sectors.”

“There is no logic behind this decision. Including the PTE sector would only have cost an extra $4 million. The decision even contradicts TEAC’s latest report, which said that an institution’s ownership should not matter when deciding student subsidies. It’s just that the public sector has a louder foghorn.”

The Ministry of Education reported 31,189 PTE students for the full year 2000 that received EFTS subsidies. 2001 growth of about 15% is expected, so there should be over 35,000 students in 2001. About 70,000 PTE students are funded in other ways.

Public institutions also get extra funds to support Maori and Pacific Islands students, and students with disabilities. However, PTEs enrol more Maori and Pacific Islands students, but receive no extra funds to reflect that.
Contact John Reynolds on 09 309 5970 (work), 09 445 8648 (home)
John Reynolds is the chairperson of a coalition of 3 PTE associations, sponsored by NZAPEP. The coalition represents well over half of all PTEs receiving EFTS student subsidies.

- NZAPEP is the largest national association of private training establishments registered with NZQA. Its 168 members enrol about half of the PTE students in New Zealand.
- The Pacific Islands Tertiary Providers of New Zealand represent 26 Pacific Islands PTEs.
- The Independent Degree-granting Institutes represent 6 PTEs.

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