Submissions: Tertiary Education Resourcing

Submissions: Tertiary Education Resourcing

Submissions due: Inquiry into the Resourcing of Tertiary Education

Kia ora,

if you have not already sent in a submission to the Inquiry into the Resourcing of Tertiary Education, Education and Science Select Committee, this is to remind you that the deadline is 24 July 2000 (21 July for one page submissions). The terms of reference for the Inquiry are listed at the end of this message.

* Points you could make

There are a number of points which could be made to the Select Committee about the resourcing of tertiary education which we are sure you are all familiar with - the fact that recent governments do not have appeared to grasp the concept that investing in education is investing in the future; the anecdotal evidence that the short term and long term costs of tertiary education act to prevent the participation of students from low-income families; and that the cost of student loan repayments has an excessively negative impact on those on low incomes and those whose paid work pattern is disrupted by their unpaid caring or child rearing work.

You may be aware that the Controller and Auditor-General’s report on the publicly available accountability information on the student loan scheme (23 June 2000) concluded that:

“Point 4.065: There is a lack of systematic information on the socio-economic impact of the Scheme, including both intended and unintended outcomes. This is the area where the information gap is greatest, and also the most critical. Point 4.066: There is no information on the impact of the Scheme on the rate of participation in tertiary education.” A quite extraordinary state of affairs.

There is of course one group in society who are exempted from paying the costs of their tertiary education. Military personnel do not pay fees nor do they incur student loans, and indeed teenagers are recruited to the armed forces on the basis of advertising campaigns which emphasise this access to free tertiary education - ‘arm me with a degree’, ‘arm me with trade training second to none’ and so on. If you are planning on making a submission to this Inquiry you could point out that either free tertiary education should be extended to everyone; or alternatively, that if the vast majority of students have to pay fees and incur student loan debts, then those in the armed forces should do likewise.

The Alliance has put together a one page submission form which you can use, if you wish, to put together a quick submission. It calls for free tertiary education, and has four main points on that theme. There is room on the form for adding your own points and the reasons why you support free and accessible tertiary education.

Copies of the one page submissions form are available from PMA by email as text or a Word 97 attachment, please specify which you would prefer.

Copies of the Controller and Auditor-General’s report on the publicly available accountability information on the student loan scheme are available from the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General / Tumuaki o te Mana Arotake, tel (04) 471 6500, they will send it out to you on request.

* How to make your submission

If you want to make an oral submission to the Select Committee, you will need to include a statement to that effect on your submission and supply your name, address and telephone number so they can get back to you.

Then either send twenty copies of your submission to Clare Sullivan, Clerk of the Committee, Education and Science Select Committee, Parliament Buildings, Wellington (no stamp required) to reach them by 24 July 2000; or

If you are using the Alliance’s one page submission form, send one copy by 21 July 2000 to: the Alliance Whips Office, Parliament Buildings, Wellington (no stamp required), fax (04) 499 0829. Please note the earlier deadline on this option.

* Terms of reference

The Education and Science Select Committee is carrying out an enquiry into:

~ the strengths and weaknesses of the current system of student fees, loans and allowances;

~ the future social and economic impacts of student debt, including the sustainability of the Scheme;

~ the implications of the current funding model for the quality of education, course selection, skill availability, and the ‘brain drain’; and

~ any other matters to do with the resourcing of tertiary education.

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