Chamber Supports Increased Spending on Education

Chamber Supports Increased Expenditure on Quality Education

Should there be increases in tertiary education expenditure, the focus should be on quality education rather than student allowances according to the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“Education is vitally important for New Zealand and we support increased expenditure on it. However, like the New Zealand Vice Chancellor’s Committee, we would have prefered to see the increases going toward improving the quality of education students receive,” said Chamber CEO Charles Finny.

“Currently there is an imbalance between funding for students and funding for institutions and yesterday’s decision will increase that imbalance.

“New Zealand spends 42% of its tertiary education budget on financial aid for students compared with an OECD average of 18%.

“More emphasis on funding the provision of tertiary education would address this misbalance and improve the quality of education.

“If we want to increase New Zealand’s productivity growth and rise to the top half of the OECD in terms of per capita income growth, increased expenditure on quality education is essential,” Mr Finny concluded.

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