Anne Tolley, Minsiter of Education

“The previous Government made a number of other significant promises in tertiary education that they did not fund in last year’s Budget. This Government has not been able to fund all of these initiatives and Budget 2009 reflects that… [read more]

Jordan King, Co-President of NZ Union of Students Associations:

Students are disappointed today with the Government’s Budget following the announcement that the main funding categories in tertiary education will not be guaranteed to increase in real terms over the coming few years and that $98 million dollars worth of Scholarships will be slashed. While acknowledging a 1.95% (below predicted inflation level) funding adjustment in 2010, students have been left in the dark over tertiary funding beyond next year… [read more]

Roger Field, Chair of NZ Vice Chancellors Committee

Committee chair Professor Roger Field says the Government has anticipated some growth in university enrolment without providing commensurate funding, while funding commitments for university salaries have been reduced. In light of the Budget’s treatment of universities, Professor Field renewed the NZVCC’s call for savings achieved through reduced tertiary education compliance costs and cuts in bureaucracy to be reinvested in the sector… [read more]

Jeremy Baker, Executive Director of the Industry Training Federation

Today the government formally responded by in effect cutting funding to industry training while passing on significant increases in funding to polytechnics and universities whose qualifications cost the taxpayer around three times as much as the industry training sector and often contain only a tenuous link to the country’s economic and social needs. This is achieved by taking away inflation-adjusted increases for industry training, while leaving them in place for tertiary education providers..  [read more]

Peter Conway, Secretary of the Council of Trade Unions

But it could have been scaled up and combined with other job creation schemes to really assist the growing numbers of unemployed. Add in more investment in skills, allow for expanded tertiary education numbers, and scale up advice and support for those laid off and then we would have seen a budget about jobs and people… [read more]