'Tertiary Education and Other Matters Bill', Matters

Student Union says 'Tertiary Education and Other Matters Bill', Matters.

The New Zealand Union of Students' Association has found favour with some of the proposed amendments to the Education Act announced today.

"The changes bring clarity to a number of matters and includes changes that we have lobbied for" says NZUSA President Linsey Higgins.

Of particular interest for NZUSA is the promotion of student involvement in decision-making through enhanced reporting requirements for the Compulsory Student Services Fee (CSSF).

"For too long many tertiary institutions have been far too opaque in their processes around the CSSF. This is money that institutions are required to consult or make joint decisions with students with respect to the level of the fee charged and how the money is spent. In the past institutions have been required only to include spending information in their Annual Reports, but this information is in a location and format that is unable to be easily accessible to students. Institutions will now be required to report by way of a page on their own a website, and also to share their consultation practices. This should mean that the poor performers are exposed and pushed towards best practices rather than continue to muddle in mediocrity."

However, if the Minister is serious about this then instead of gently suggesting good practice some things more than a webpage should be mandatory. If he really wants institutions to engage with students then there should be clear expectations around the dedicated resources needed to engage with students and institutions should be required to resource their representative student voice so they can facilitate an informed discussion with students about what happens with their money. Structures that support joint-decision making should be required instead of recommended."

"While in principle NZUSA supports the use of the Export Education Levy to cover students left short by failing PTE's we are aware that the use of this fund to do so would decrease the amount available for promoting international students to study at decent providers in New Zealand. We would rather the government lift its game in getting rid of the bad eggs so the rest of the sector doesn't have to pay for their poor performance.

"We are interested to see how the proposed changes to investment plans are directed. If it gives flexibility that benefits students then we applaud this, however if it's for the Minister to choose the focus of tertiary institutions over the wishes of students, local communities and other stakeholders then this is a step too far."

"Finally, NZUSA supports a sector with a high standards but we know that the worst cases of non-compliance are from a small number of private training establishments (PTE's)."

"NZUSA takes no umbrage with the proposed change to the naming of 'Private Training Establishments', 'Independent Training Establishments' per se, since we know that PTE's range from a small not-for profit community group which provides local training, to the multi-million dollar, profit generating machines. Yet we would rather we called a spade a spade. The lumping all of them into a differently named homogeneous group obscures the real function of some of these institutions, which as we have seen in recent times put profits far above their educational focus".

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