Post-Grad allowance cuts send talent offshore

new-zealand-labour-party

Mon Apr 01 2013 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Post-Grad allowance cuts send talent offshore

Monday, 1 April 2013, 5:31 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Megan
WOODS
Tertiary Education Spokesperson
1 April 2013 MEDIA STATEMENT
Post-Grad allowance cuts send talent offshore

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce’s admission today that the number of students in post-graduate study will likely fall as a result of National’s cuts to student allowances, represents another fail grade on National’s education record, says Labour’s Tertiary Education spokesperson Megan Woods.

“Labour warned that these cuts would mean fewer New Zealanders had access to post-graduate study.

“Steven Joyce claimed that the 4000 to 5000 students who would lose access would simply switch to the loan scheme. But for many, the loan is not enough to live on.

“National talks about creating an ‘innovation led-economy’ but its actions show this up as empty rhetoric. A commitment to innovation must go hand in hand with a commitment to education, from pre-school through to post-graduate study.

“All over the world, quality education is the key to more employment and higher wages. But here we have a government with a self-declared ambition of ‘dampening down demand’ for tertiary education.

“Education is not a cost to be cut. It is an investment in our future.

“I am glad Steven Joyce has now heard the ‘anecdotal evidence’ of what cutting allowances will achieve.

“Thousands of students across the country are choosing not to continue their study or instead taking up post-graduate research overseas. If we lose them, we lose their skills and expertise at the very time we need more qualified people.

“Steven Joyce needs to think hard about the impacts of this decision. Labour will be reading the enrolment returns in April with great interest,” Megan Woods said.

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