28 August 2002

Fee Stabilisation Offer Deadline Extended

The government is extending the time education providers have to consider its fee stabilisation offer for 2003, Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey said today.

For the third year in a row, the Labour-led government committed additional funding in the 2002 Budget, which would allow tuition subsidies to be increased for tertiary education institutions and private training establishments that agreed not to raise fees. The latest offer of a 4.5%, for the 2003 academic year, was the most generous fee stabilisation deal that had been offered and represented the first time in over a decade that the government had provided for a real increase in institutions’ tuition income.

Steve Maharey said that the government recognised that the early election had created a period of uncertainty for the sector during which full consideration of the fee stabilisation offer may not have proceeded.

“We have extended the date that providers have to consider the offer until Friday, 11 October 2002. Significant financial decisions should always be considered carefully by governing Councils and we want to make sure that everyone feels they’ve been able to look at all the facts. Those institutions that have already accepted the fee stabilisation offer for 2003 will not be disadvantaged by having done so.

“I also want to make it clear to all providers that taking the fee stabilisation offer for 2003 will in no way disadvantage them once the new funding system, whereby the government sets fee maxima, comes into place in 2004. No institution will, by accepting the 2003 fee stabilisation, be locked into lower fees than other institutions once the fee maxima system comes into force.

“In working through these changes the government is committed to ensuring that institutions are not worse off. A strong, strategically focussed tertiary education sector is a vital component of this government’s ambition to transform New Zealand into a leading knowledge society,” Steve Maharey said.

Ends

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