28 August 2002
Fee Stabilisation Offer Deadline Extended
The government is extending the time education providers have to consider its fee stabilisation offer for 2003,
Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey said today.
For the third year in a row, the Labour-led government committed additional funding in the 2002 Budget, which would
allow tuition subsidies to be increased for tertiary education institutions and private training establishments that
agreed not to raise fees. The latest offer of a 4.5%, for the 2003 academic year, was the most generous fee
stabilisation deal that had been offered and represented the first time in over a decade that the government had
provided for a real increase in institutions’ tuition income.
Steve Maharey said that the government recognised that the early election had created a period of uncertainty for the
sector during which full consideration of the fee stabilisation offer may not have proceeded.
“We have extended the date that providers have to consider the offer until Friday, 11 October 2002. Significant
financial decisions should always be considered carefully by governing Councils and we want to make sure that everyone
feels they’ve been able to look at all the facts. Those institutions that have already accepted the fee stabilisation
offer for 2003 will not be disadvantaged by having done so.
“I also want to make it clear to all providers that taking the fee stabilisation offer for 2003 will in no way
disadvantage them once the new funding system, whereby the government sets fee maxima, comes into place in 2004. No
institution will, by accepting the 2003 fee stabilisation, be locked into lower fees than other institutions once the
fee maxima system comes into force.
“In working through these changes the government is committed to ensuring that institutions are not worse off. A strong,
strategically focussed tertiary education sector is a vital component of this government’s ambition to transform New
Zealand into a leading knowledge society,” Steve Maharey said.
Ends