Universities around the country are tightening up their enrolment policies as the combined pressure of the EFTS cap and increasing numbers of potential students continues to create pressure.

The Otago Daily Times reports that enrolment caps have been placed on 20 undergraduate and sub-degree programmes in the next semester, with vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg saying caps also will be required next year.

He said that enrolments were increasing faster than the university or the government funding agency, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), had expected.

This is the first time the University of Otago has restricted entry to first-year study or open-entry courses.

Prof Skegg said Otago’s domestic EFTS this year were 4.4 percent up on the corresponding time last year, and it appeared that the final domestic enrolment result would be slightly above its TEC imposed 103 percent cap.

Unexpected enrolment growth also affected staffing, Prof Skegg said. Already, the student-to-academic-staff ratio at Otago had grown from 14.6:1 in 2007 to 15.9:1 this year.

“We can’t afford to hire more staff and we have no offices for them anyway, because we are short of space.”

The University of Auckland introduced enrolment caps from the start of last year, and NZPA reports that Victoria University in Wellington had advised that undergraduate student places would not be guaranteed from the second semester of this year.

New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations co-president David Do told the New Zealand Herald  it was “quite concerning” that universities were bringing forward their deadlines for admissions changes.

“This is yet another symptom of the Government failing to properly support increased demand for higher education and failing to support access to those who need education and upskilling at this time,” said Mr Do.

Thanks to Danny McL at Flickr for the photo