Minister comments on tertiary education costs

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 12

Minister comments on tertiary education costs

PA Wellington The Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, said yesterday that he viewed with concern any proposal intended to further shift the costs of tertiary education on to students. Employers of tertiary graduates were major beneficiaries of the system and he would like to see any move towards implementing a user-pays principle recognising that fact, he said. Mr Marshall said last year that Treasury was

investigating the possibility of university graduates’ paying back the costs of their tertiary education. . ... ' . j' Several months later he said it was becoming more difficult to justify the present funding of universities when , big sums of money were spent educating a tiny proportion of mainly middle-class students. Mr Marshall told the Institution of Professional Engineers conference in Palmerston North yester-

day that he viewed with some concern any proposal which was intended to shift the costs of tertiary education further on to students.

“Apart from- the very substantial equity issues these proposals raise, I suspect that they would become a further disincentive for- young people to undertake tertiary education," he said. “New Zealand’s low participation rates, by overseas comparisons, are already disturbing enough.” . -