Election Watch: The future of tertiary education

Wednesday, 13 September 2023

In the Election Watch column, The Post shines a light on the policies, parties and personalities in the lead-up to Election Day on October 14.

Rising costs and a decline in student enrolments have pushed many tertiary education providers into financial difficulty with hundreds of jobs and dozens of programmes proposed cut across Aotearoa. Here’s what the four top parties are planning on doing.

Labour

The fees-free initiative was rolled out under the Labour Government in 2018, meaning the first year of tertiary study is fees free. It also introduced free apprenticeships and targeted trades training.

It raised student allowances by $20 this year when it increased main benefits by 7.22% in line with the increased cost of living.

Tertiary education saw a boost in funding in this year’s Budget, following concerns being raised by several universities about their financial difficulties.

Education Minister Jan Tinetti described a 5% funding increase for all tertiary institutions from next year as the “biggest increase in at least 20 years”. It also expanded the apprentice boost subsidy scheme to the end of 2024.

In June, the Government announced a one-off funding boost of $128m over the next two years to further support tertiary education providers and committed to review of the higher education funding system.

National

The National Party has yet to release its tertiary policy, but has said it would be a part of its yet-to-be-released Education Manifesto with a spokesperson saying this would be released before the election.

Asked whether it would commit to a funding review of the tertiary sector, in particular of universities, they replied “that is not our policy”.

National has announced it would disestablish Te Pūkenga, which was created under Labour’s then Education Minister Chris Hipkins merging 16 individual polytechnics into the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology mega-structure.

ACT

ACT similarly has yet to release its tertiary policy but confirmed it would look to disestablish Te Pūkenga and end the fees-free policy.

It said the way university and tertiary education was funded wasn’t fit for purpose and should be reviewed but did not provide further detail about what that would look like.

Greens

Tertiary education spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick said the party was committed to a funding review and expected “student voice to be a key component of that”.

She said the review and overhaul of the tertiary sector should also include Te Pūkenga to increase access to vocational study, especially in the regions.

It supported keeping free apprenticeships and was committed to working towards fees-free education for all tertiary courses.

The party also would also look to introduce a universal student payment of $385 a week ‒including at postgraduate level, and requiring work placements pay students at least the living wage.

It also wanted to raise the threshold for student loan repayments and reducing the repayment rates, eventually working towards a student debt write-off.