Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi are both likely to cut courses next year because of government policy, despite having record numbers of students wanting to study at their institutions.

Awanuiārangi is understood to have 16 percent more students in 2009 than it is funded for by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). AUT also is significantly over its TEC-imposed cap for equivalent full-time students. Both are likely to respond to pressure from the Tertiary Education Strategy, which requires universities and university-aligned wānanga to focus more on degree-level and postgraduate teaching. With the cap on student numbers, the only way they can do this is by cutting pre-degree courses.

Awanuiārangi is understood to be preparing to cut its certificate and diploma Māori language courses, while AUT is likely to cut some pre-degree foundation programmes, as well as some arts and social sciences courses.

This news follows an announcement by the University of Waikato to its staff earlier this week that it is likely to propose a “significant and possibly total reduction in the number of pre-degree EFTS for 2010″.

“It is absurd that just when young people who wouldn’t normally go on to tertiary education are taking the initiative to do so, the very programmes that give them access to universities and wānanga are being cut back,” says TEU President Dr Tom Ryan. “These would-be students want to learn their way out of the recession, but instead a combination of ill-thought government policies is forcing them onto the dole queue.”