The national student unions are offering their support to the recently announced members of the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission (TEAC), and are looking forward to working with them in the coming months.
"TEAC has an unenviable task," said David Penney, National President of the Aotearoa Post-compulsory Student Union (APSU). "The problems facing tertiary education are widespread, and TEAC will need to begin work immediately on addressing the inequalities that are present in tertiary education today."
"The commission has a good depth of experience on it," said David Penney "We anticipate that they will look soon to establish dialogue with key players in the sector as they begin to formulate their initial wide ranging issues paper."
"The previous National government ran down the tertiary sector in the last decade, and encouraged a cut throat competitive environment, said Sam Huggard, Co President of the New Zealand University Students Association (NZUSA). "As the recent 'repositioning' project at Massey University shows, this sort of mentality lingers on. TEAC has been asked to give strategic advice on redeveloping a tertiary sector than can work collaboratively, and we are welcoming this - it is long overdue," said Sam Huggard.
"We are thankful that New Zealand now has a government that is willing to seek advice on what changes are needed in tertiary education, rather than bumbling through blindly as the government did. Together with the Education and Science Select Committee inquiry into student loans, we are looking forward to offering student's perspectives and what the pressing issues are in tertiary education," concluded Sam Huggard.
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