Tertiary Education Funding

I was pleased to hear that the inconsistency between the current funding model for tertiary education institutions  and the difficult economic times (which is seeing a big increase in demand for places)  was one of the main items run on Morning Report this morning.  I have been raising this issue with government for some weeks (see for example my speech to the Weltec graduation).  Most recently I raised the issue with Mark Weldon (Friday) and TEC boss Roy Sharp (Wednesday).  I see the tertiary education as a key part of the response to this crisis.  I would much rather have people re-skill or up-skill rather than go on the dole.  Aside from anything else this will help us grow our productivity into the long term.

We have a section on this issue in our submission to the employment summit on Friday.  We hope the Government will act immediately to review policy in this area and remove the caps imposed a couple of years ago.