News 15 Mar – Briefings to New Minister, Budget Lobbying Starts

March 15th 2010 at 7:45am, By Dave Guerin

  1. Joyce’s Briefings Steven Joyce released briefings given to him as the new Minister on Friday. There are nine papers for the curious. (I = ED Insider story)
  2. Tertiary Education Reforms The Manawatu Standard has come out in support of performance-based funding for providers and for student loans. Martin Kay, political reporter, has written a lengthy piece on the reforms for The Dominion-Post, also broadly supportive. The Otago Daily Times is also supportive in an editorial. The NZ Herald reports on more details from Steven Joyce about student loan changes. The NBR was also keen on the reforms, but their editorial is only available to subscribers.
  3. University Budget Push?The Auckland and Otago University VCs, Stuart McCutcheon and David Skeggs, were on Radio NZ’s Nine to Noon last Friday, while McCutcheon also had an opinion piece in NBR (subscriber-only). They were focused on the international recruitment challenges and the need for more money to help them compete - the ODT had a summary here. The points mirror a recent comment by Rod Carr, Canterbury VC, on the “war for talent”. With the Budget rolling around in May, it seems like a coordinated push.
  4. Fees going up? There’s a story in The Southland Times today about the potential to lift fee regulation that looks a lot like a softening up story prior to a Budget announcement.
  5. Enrolments Enrolments are up in the Waikato – see a related post by me on the University of Waikato exceeding its funding cap. Enrolments are also up significantly in the Bay of Plenty.
  6. Food Innovation Research Network Gerry Brownlee announced a new $21m food innovation network on Friday, providing open access food development facilities at regional hubs in Manukau, Waikato, Palmerston North and Canterbury. Seems like a good idea. (I)
  7. Suing Students The University of California has just had a US$38m judgment made against them, to refund students who believed that they would face no fee hikes during their study (but did). A law student initiated the class action.
  8. DOL Not Suing Tai Poutini Polytechnic will not be sued by the Dept of Labour over a death of a member of the public at a climbing wall owned by the Polytechnic.
  9. Aoraki Restructuring The curious can find out more about Aoraki Polytechnic’s restructuring here.

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