Government Fails To Research Policy

A letter received from the Ministry of Education has confirmed the APSU Student Unions fear that the Bright Future strategy announced by National was based not on solid research but on conjecture and untested assumptions.

APSU Student Union wrote to the Ministry and requested: "Research that has been done to show the intended recipients of the new scholarships announced under the Bright Future package would not have been continuing tertiary studies in these fields without the new incentives".

"The Ministry have written in response that no research has been conducted into the intended recipients of scholarships proposed under the Bright Future package," said President John Barkess today.

"We were concerned that the initiatives to encourage more people into science and technology have been misdirected. We sought assurances that the proposed move would result in a direct benefit to the sector. The government has failed to deliver any reassurance. They have in fact reinforced our belief that decisions are being made for this sector without the necessary background studies."

These findings are all the more ironic, given that Mr. Bradford has lambasted the Alliance Party's tertiary policy for supposedly "…encouraging student debt… offering handouts to students, many of whom don't need them as they are in a better position to contribute to the cost of their education…"

"Our belief is that the top students are often, but not always, from the higher decile schools and therefore are more likely to be in a position to contribute to costs of education. Yet these are the very people Mr. Bradford wants to give hand-outs to for," said Barkess. "We are happy that someone is getting assistance but feel perhaps it may have been better directed had some research been conducted."

ENDS

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