It seems that at about 4.30 today Massey University announced to staff that they were closing enrolments for their summer school at 5pm. They had been due to close on the 1st of November. Seems a bizarre way to do it, and I am not sure if there was a rush in the half hour that they remained open!
The reason as stated on the Massey website is that they have now reached their funded cap and could take no more students in 2010 (except of course full fee paying international students). According to Big News those who had already enrolled may not get to study if there have not been sufficient enrolments in particular courses. Those courses will be cancelled.
As with Victoria closing off enrolments for the second semester this is going to disrupt plans and add costs for students and their families.
But I understand the position the universities find themselves in. Steven Joyce is still not moving to address this issue, and next year will be far worse. He is sitting on his hands, because he actually wants to “dampen demand”, and thinks it will all calm down in a year.
There is a lot of ad-hoc decision making from universities which will be leaving students and parents confused. There really is a need for leadership from the government on this to ensure that we get and retain as many people as possible in tertiary education over the next year.
Posted in University Enrolments, Massey University, Tertiary and Steven Joyce. |
For those who have not been following the saga. John Key appoints Steven Joyce as Tertiary Minister because there are ‘economic’ issues to deal with in the portfolio including on student loans. Key denies they are making any major changes, but then uses the PMs statement to Parliament to say that they are looking at tightening eligibility to student support, seemingly with time limits and linking to passing courses.
Steven Joyce repeats this in the Press this morning, and makes it clear that National has no real commitment to the interest free student loans policy, saying it was a “political call” to keep it.
But what really gets me about Joyce’s comments is his perpetuating of the myth that interest free student loans mean there is no incentive to pay back the loan.
“The simple point is, if you don’t pay interest on any loan – forget student loans for a second – then there is less incentive to pay it back than if you do pay interest.”
This totally ignores the point that the student loan, unlike any normal loan, is automatically paid back at 10c in the dollar once you earn more than the annually adjusted threshold, currently $19,084. Its not a question of an incentive to pay the loans back as that the law mandates that you do that, essentially as soon as you start working. If we are going to have a loan scheme, that seems to me to be a fair way of paying it back. I suspect Joyce is in fact concerned about the cost to the Crown of the scheme. If so, let’s talk about that, rather than perpetuating myths about how the scheme operates.
Posted in Steven Joyce. |
