Dr Paul Hutchison MP
National Party Tertiary Education Spokesman

19 December 2007

Hodgson deceptive over tertiary funding

Pete Hodgson had the gall to tell Parliament yesterday that the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) had increased funding to Southland Institute of Technology (SIT) by 12%, when he’s actually slashing millions, says National’s Tertiary Education spokesman, Paul Hutchison.

“The Minister claims he is ‘giving’ an additional 250 EFTS to SIT, but neglects to mention his scurrilous move to reduce 1,400 EFTS from their distance learning and Christchurch programmes.

“It is hard to know whether he actually intends to provide 250 or 150 EFTS, but whatever it is, it equates to removing $7.9 million of funding and putting in a paltry $750,000.

“Labour, through TEC, has punished four rural-serving South Island polytechnics – Telford, SIT, Tai Poutini and Aoraki – by slashing their budgets by between 20% and 9.3%.

“It is pure deception to claim funding has increased to these institutions, and a demonstration that the ‘high trust’ tertiary reform model promised by Labour is off to a very bad start.

“If Labour is already distorting the reality of its reforms by fudging figures to hide funding cuts, providers will be rightly worried about any other deceptions that might be uncovered as the reforms are implemented”.

ENDS

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