Numbers eligible for fees-free tertiary study drops by 26,000

The number of people theoretically eligible for the Government’s feesfree study policy has dropped 26,000 from the 80,000 it touted when it launched the policy in December.

The first round of data on the highprofile policy showed the estimated number of potentially eligible tertiary students in April was 52,300 and those in workplace-based training was 1700, down from a combined 80,000 in an earlier estimate.

“The Ministry [of Education’s] costings were based on assumptions from data from 2016, the most up-todate information at the time, and were set deliberately at the upper limit to ensure sufficient funding was provided to tertiary institutions in January 2018,” Education Minister Chris Hipkins said yesterday.

Lower than expected enrolments in 2017 and a strong labour market resulted in $31.7 million a year being available to give as tuition subsidies to polytechnics, universities and other tertiary institutions.

“Tertiary education enrolments steadily declined from 2010 to 2016, and 2017 was worse than we expected but the data was not available in time for Budget 2018,” he said.

“The decline has challenged providers’ ability to maintain the quality of what they deliver to students, made worse by tuition subsidies generally decreasing in real terms since 2011.”

The rise in tuition subsidies would ease some of the pressures faced by the sector but Hipkins said he was also reviewing the vocational and training education system and institutes of technology and polytechnics, including funding systems.

He would also soon begin consultation on the maximum amount tertiary education providers would be able to increase fees by in 2019.

Borrowing was $151 million lower in the first three months of 2018 than during the same period in 2017.

“That’s a great start,” Hipkins said.