Last week Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples flew a political kite by suggesting that universities should apply an open entry policy in respect of all Maori students.

Sharples was right to raise the issue of low Maori participation in tertiary study, especially at the university level and to remind all New Zealanders of the inequities that still faced by the Tangata Whenua in our society.

While this issue provided another excuse for Maori bashing on talkback radio and in the media generally, I would have to say that while the Maori Affairs Minister is on the right track in terms of his comments, he should be talking about the extension of open entry to all New Zealanders who would academically qualify for tertiary study regardless of their ancestry through the abolition of the user pays education system from the early childhood to tertiary levels.

Since the fourth Labour Government introduced user pays tertiary education at the behest of then education minister Phil Goff (now Labour Party Leader) in 1990, many New Zealanders who would have qualified for tertiary study have found the door to it shut in their faces through the imposition of onerous fees and a student loans scheme that practically promotes the taking out of loans if students want to eat, let alone pay for study costs.

Many Maori have been impacted in their ability to undertake tertiary study (alongside New Zealanders from other low income backgrounds) for this reason and perhaps it would have been better for Mr Sharples to have stood up to the National Government and the Labour Party as well and say that it is time to end user pays education once and for all.

Realistically, though, while the Maori Party's political apron strings remain tied to National as part of their extended supply and confidence agreement, I don't think that Pita and his colleagues will be advocating the end of user pays education in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

As a tutor last semester at the University of Otago, I would have to say that people really need to be prepared to undertake tertiary study prior to entering it in terms of having the requisite literacy, numeracy and other skills required to succeed at that level. I do agree with some Maori and other education sector commentators that more work needs to be done to prepare Maori, Pacific Island and other ethnic minority students for the rigours of tertiary study using culturally appropriate programmes to advance this. I even would go so far as to say (honestly) that a small number of the New Zealand students from Pakeha backgrounds I taught couldn't even spell, let alone string a sentence together too and we do need to up the skill levels of students from all walks of life who enter tertiary study as well.

That's why I believe that the policy of most universities, in accepting through open entry students who meet a certain minimum standard level of academic competency, should remain in place but I would certainly not welcome any further tightening as has been proposed by the University of Auckland in the past as it would indeed present barriers to potentially competent students from lower socioeconomic and other ethnic backgrounds entering tertiary study.

In saying all this, Pita Sharples would be better to promote the concept of open entry for all based on the principles of a universally free tertiary education system where are no fees chargable, no student loan requirements and above all where student allowances are set at a livable level and not means tested. The chances of this happening are about as slim as John Key becoming the next Pope. One though has to live in hope that free education will make it back on the agenda as an issue worthy of discussion.