The budget is due today and we already have a good sense of what it will mean for tertiary education. For most the big tertiary education issue in this year’s budget will be whether it affords new opportunities for people to study or limits people’s chances to study.  In recent weeks government pre-budget announcements have focused on the government’s measures to limit access to student loans.

NZPA reported this week that the government intends to restrict living cost loans to people aged over 55 in tomorrow’s budget, but that the Human Rights Commission’s Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner, Judy McGregor, is concerned such a policy would potentially be unlawful discrimination under the Human Rights Act.

The government also intends to focus on overseas student loan borrowers by cutting the three-year repayment holiday for borrowers who go overseas to one year, and using debt collectors in Australia and Britain to recall about $2.3 billion in student debt overseas.

Last week the minister of tertiary education Steven Joyce announced that today’s budget will provide up to $42 million for trades training for Canterbury, The funding would provide up to 1500 additional training places “as part of a comprehensive response to meet additional demand for labour for the earthquake reconstruction programme.”

Overall the big issue is the total dollar amount the government intends to spend on tertiary education though. In Treasury’s latest forecasts government funding for tertiary education funding will fall every year between 2009 and 2014. Most of this reduction is due to a tightening in eligibility for student loans, but it also includes falls in funding for tuition and other tertiary education spending.

TEU will be reporting on how the budget affects the EFTS cap, student access to education, and funding to support quality learning and teaching as it emerges. For TEU commentary on the budget once it is released, visit our budget 2011 page