MIT makes early decision on fees for 2006

Thursday August 25, 2005

Manukau Institute of Technology makes early decision on fees for 2006

Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) has made an early decision to peg its average 2006 fee increases to 2.9%, the predicted increase in the consumer price index.

“Costs of providing tertiary education are increasing well above this level,” says MIT Council chairperson Margaret Cole.

“While the fine detail of recently announced changes to funding for polytechnics will not be clear for some months, it is important to give our students and prospective students some certainty on the fees they will have to pay next year. We hope that this early indication will assist early enrolment decisions.
“The Council and the Executive are very mindful that many communities in our catchment area are under considerable financial pressure and we are doing our best to limit the effects of fee increases.”

MIT deputy chief executive Dr Peter Coolbear says this limited fee increase will provide a significant challenge as MIT‘s completes its operating budget for 2006.

“We had scope to increase fees for many of our courses by up to 5%, but we are sure it is the right decision to limit the average increase to the projected CPI increase. We are committed to meeting the tertiary education and training needs of our communities, and part of this is making our programmes as affordable as possible.”

Dr Coolbear noted that specific increases in fees for individual programmes and courses will vary due to the complexities of the government’s ‘fees maxima’ regulations. Changes will vary between a decrease of 5% and an increase of 4.4%, but the overall average fee increase of all programmes across MIT will be 2.9%.

ENDS

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