Government funding for Waikato polytechnic has increased and should not be blamed for the polytechnic’s proposed fee hike, Tertiary Education Minister Max Bradford said today.

Mr Bradford said comments by the polytechnic’s Chief Executive David Rawlence that cuts in government funding were behind the fee increases for next year had no foundation.

“Government funding for Equivalent Full Time Students (EFTS) for Waikato polytechnic has increased over the last three years.

“In 1999 estimated funding through the EFTS system increased 3.5% from 1998.

“The Government is also allocating an additional $5 million to the polytechnic to ensure the per EFTS subsidy will remain the same for 2000 as it is in 1999, rather than go down.

“Students have a right to be angry but not at the Government. Students should be asking the hard questions of the polytechnic,” Mr Bradford said.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>