19 May 2005

Tertiary Overview

Hon Trevor Mallard Minister of Education

Tertiary education funding switches to quality Tertiary education initiatives in Budget 2005 will strengthen the quality and relevance of tertiary teaching, learning and research in New Zealand, Education Minister Trevor Mallard announced today.

"In previous budgets we have focused on putting in place the tertiary education system reforms. We are concentrating now on lifting quality and relevance throughout the sector, in line with the Statement of Tertiary Education Priorities for 2005-07," Trevor Mallard said.

The government is investing an additional $341.3 million over the next four years across the tertiary sector, including a further $44.6 million over the next four years to expand Modern Apprenticeships and industry training (see separate statement). Total spending on tertiary education in 2005-06 will be $2.85 billion, an increase of 68 per cent since 1999.

"The new funding this year includes additional money for the Performance-Based Research Fund, which supports world-class research. Top quality research at tertiary level is vital to this country’s economic and social development and sustainable growth. The fund will increase by $75.5 million over the next four years, raising it to $193.7 million by 2008-09."

Other important elements of the tertiary education budget are: $132.7 million from Budget 2005 and previous budgets will go to increasing the funding rates for strategically relevant subject areas, including science, trades, technical subjects, agriculture and horticulture.

The new rates, which follow a review of funding categories, are set out on www.tec.govt.nz Student component funding rates will increase by 2.6 per cent to reflect inflation and these rates will be rolled out for a further year to 2009.

This is additional to the funding category review allocation. An additional $57 million over four years will improve the tertiary student support system, including $13 million for the new bonded merit scholarships

ENDS

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