Wellington, May 14 NZPA - The Maori Tertiary Students Association (MTSA) has joined the chorus of anger over decisions by two universities to restrict or stop further enrolments this year.

Victoria University announced on Wednesday it would not accept any more domestic applications for undergraduate study for the rest of the year, while Otago University decided on Tuesday to cap enrolments for several of its second semester courses.

A surge in demand for tertiary study, coupled with limited resources, has been blamed for the moves.

The MTSA's Jacqualene Poutu said the news was devastating to under-represented groups who already struggled to access higher level education.

Maori students needed to compete with students from highly resourced schools for entry into university, Ms Poutu said.

"The problem is that the majority of Maori students come from low decile schools with less resourcing and therefore less stability to academically compete for university entry."

The association called for increases in funding for the tertiary sector in the upcoming budget, while others have taken aim at the Government, claiming it was short-sighted and should have seen the problem coming.

Labour's tertiary education spokeswoman Maryan Street said a failure to allocate adequate funding to tertiary institutions was restricting the ability of young New Zealanders to grow through a smart economy -- something the Government encouraged.

New Zealand Union of Students Associations co-president David Do said the "relatively sudden and unexpected decisions" from the universities were unfair to potential students and affected their ability to plan their education.

The Tertiary Education Union said the situation meant the Government's policy of capping the number of students it was willing to fund needed reviewing.

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce said the recession had led to more people enrolling for tertiary education, and while demand was up, the Government was also funding more places than ever before.

But he said funding was limited and universities needed to manage enrolments in their own ways.

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