Steven Joyce

Corrects when Otago decided to cap enrolments in second para

Wellington, May 13 NZPA - Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce has defended suggestions that government short-sightedness is to blame for moves by two universities to restrict or stop further enrolments this year.

Victoria University last night announced it would not accept any more domestic applications for undergraduate study for the rest of the year. Otago University decided on Tuesday to cap enrolments for several of its second semester courses, including some first year and open entry courses.

A surge in demand, coupled with limited resources have been blamed for the moves.

Labour's tertiary education spokeswoman Maryan Street said a failure to allocate adequate funding to tertiary institutions meant young New Zealanders were being restricted in their ability to grow through a smart economy.

"The Government can spout all it likes about 'step changes' in the economy. If it can't properly fund tertiary institutions, which are the powerhouses of smart economic growth, then its words will simply ring hollow," she said.

Green party tertiary education spokesman Gareth Hughes echoed those comments. "How can John Key's Government expect a smart and innovative economy if they're literally not allowing those who want to up-skill," he said.

Mr Hughes said in Victoria University's case, up to 1500 potential students were affected. "This is a failure of strategic planning.

"We know that more students go into tertiary education during recessions. We knew there was a mini baby boom in the mid to late 1980s that would be hitting the tertiary sector about now."

The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) also said the situation was the result of poor government planning.

"The Government's policy of capping the number of students it is willing to fund needs to be reviewed. It is hurting the productivity of our economy," said TEU president Tom Ryan.

Mr Joyce said tertiary enrolments were up, but the Government was also funding more places than ever before.

He said it was difficult to establish levels of demand, and that wasn't helped by the fact that when times were tight people tended to enrol with multiple institutions in case their first choices fell through, often giving an unclear picture of actual demand.

"Every university has to manage its enrolments, and they are all doing it in different ways," he told NZPA. "Generally it's done around their own academic requirements...but this is a different approach Victoria is taking -- and it's a reasonably blunt sort of approach -- but they all have to manage within their funded level of enrolments."

Enrolments were naturally higher during a recession, "but the reality is that that is all the funding we have".

Mr Joyce said last week that draft measures being looked at, including charging administration fees for those with student loans and limiting the ability of overseas students to access loans, will create more revenue to help fund new places.

He said it was difficult to assess how enrolment numbers might pan out for next year, and pointed out that while in power, the Labour Party had signed off on a decrease in the number of tertiary places for 2011.