Dr Paul Hutchison MP
National Party Tertiary Education Spokesman

4 December 2007

Hodgson confused over open entrance to unis

Tertiary Minister Pete Hodgson appears confused over Labour’s policy on the capped funding regime and how it impacts on open access to universities, says National’s Tertiary Education spokesman, Paul Hutchison.

“At the Association of University Staff conference last week, Pete Hodgson had the gall to say: ‘the Government does not intend to end the New Zealand tradition of open entry to universities’.

“This flies in the face of Labour’s tertiary reforms, which introduce a capped model. It is also in direct contradiction to what most universities are likely to do – as already indicated by Auckland University.

“Mr Hodgson is either totally confused over the issue or he and his Government are being duplicitous.

“He also told the conference: ‘We are not looking to cap the participation rate of New Zealanders in tertiary education as a whole, or indeed to cap the participation rate of New Zealanders in Bachelor degrees.’

“The tertiary sector should have no confidence in a Minister who does not know the reality of his party’s own policies and can’t even make up his mind what his polices are.

“Labour’s tertiary reforms have come about after eight years of almost constant change and at a waste of over one billion education dollars.

“Pete Hodgson needs to come clean over Labour’s university entrance policy. His confusion in such a critical area should be of great concern.”

ENDS

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