Zerofees policy makes no major change in student numbers yet
WELLINGTON: Universities New Zealand, which represents eight universities, said official figures from the Tertiary Education Commission showed their student numbers by the end of April 2018 were 0.3% higher than at the corresponding period in 2017.
The increased figure covered all domestic tertiary enrolments.
Education Ministry forecasts showed university enrolments had been expected to fall slightly this year.
‘‘Think about the student who would not have come to university without this policy, but would with the policy,’’ UNZ chairman Stuart McCutcheon said.
‘‘That student has to be academically prepared for university and they have to be in the kind of financial situation where the thing that will turn them off is one year of fees.
‘‘I think that hypothetical student doesn’t exist, which is why we’ve seen no real change in the numbers as a result of the policy.’’
The policy would not have encouraged students from poor families to attend university, Prof McCutcheon said.
‘‘If you’re trying to get students from disadvantaged communities into university, what you should do is focus on those students, at least in my view, not reduce the cost of attending university for students who come from relatively welloff parts of New Zea land,’’ he said.
Prof McCutcheon said administering the feesfree system had cost the eight universities about $500,000.
Tertiary institution managers have previously told RNZ the zerofee policy was introduced after most students had applied for courses in 2018 and the scheme might have more impact on 2019 enrolments.
Many tertiary institutions are suffering falling enrolments because of relatively high employment rates and a fall in the number of schoolleavers. The Education Ministry had forecast that enrolments would continue to fall until 2021, although it was not clear what effect the zerofee policy might have.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said enrolments in all tertiary courses above the level of foundation education appeared to have stabilised in 2018 after five years of decline.
‘‘It is pleasing that the drop in enrolment EFTS [equivalent fulltime students] appears to have flattened out, particularly at a time when there is a strong employment market, which is forecast to get even stronger over the next couple of years,’’ he said.
‘‘I will be briefing Cabinet this month on the initial highlevel feesfree uptake numbers so far, as this is the first time data has been collected on this significant policy. This data will be released publicly shortly after.’’