Universities in Canterbury and Auckland have reported domestic growth of nearly eight percent. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The government is spending $2.7 billion on tertiary courses this year, but there are early signs it will not be enough to cover all the enrolments.
Most universities and Te Pūkenga told RNZ their domestic enrolments were up with Canterbury and Auckland reporting domestic growth of nearly eight percent.
Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said its members were expecting the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) would not have enough money to subsidise all of the growth.
"The initial data report from universities and other tertiary providers to the Tertiary Education Commission is still coming in. Current indications are overall domestic student numbers are up by about four and a half percent. Some of that can be covered. What we don't know is just how big the gap is," Whelan said.
The commission agreed with institutions last year how many students it would subsidise this year and in what subjects. Those agreements, known as investment plans, included estimates of likely growth.
The Tertiary Education Commission said it had $2.75b available for courses at levels 3 and above (level 7 being degree-level), including industry training.
"Our expectation for 2025 enrolments is that we will fund their approved allocations, including the usual additional two percent organisations can receive through flexible funding, but any increases beyond this are not guaranteed," it said.
"We have told TEOs [tertiary education organisations] that additional growth in learner numbers would only be considered if TEC had funding available, and where the enrolments are in priority areas (such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), where the TEO has a history of strong education performance and a focus on improving educational outcomes for all learners," it said.
"Additional funding requests will be considered similarly to previous years. These will be based on the confirmed enrolment data received in April and whether there is any under-delivery in other parts of the sector that TEC could reinvest."
The commission said it dealt every year with requests for additional funding beyond what a TEO had been allocated.
The commission said institutions were allowed to enrol unfunded students, for which their source of income would be students' fees.
A student studying an Arts degree at a university this year would attract a tuition subsidy of $7563 and pay fees of $6,594 to $7,607.
However, institutions were not allowed to exceed their allocation of funded-enrolments by more than five percent without written permission.
The commission said it warned institutions last year that funding would be tight.
Enrolments rise at Te Pūkenga, drop at Massey
Te Pūkenga told RNZ its domestic enrolments were up three percent or 1110 full-time equivalents on the same time last year.
However, it might not receive funding for all of that increase.
"TEC has advised Te Pūkenga there is no additional funding available over and above the approved 2025 Investment Plan," it said.
Massey University told RNZ its domestic student numbers had dropped two percent compared with the same time last year.
However, a 15 percent increase in foreign student enrolments more than made up for the domestic drop, driving an overall increase in total enrolments of one percent.
Though Massey's domestic have been falling for several years, the university said this year's fall was driven by a fall in students returning for further study and enrolments of new students were up especially in its Auckland, Manawatū and distance campuses.
Victoria University said its domestic enrolments had increased three percent to 13,923.
It said it had six percent more school-leavers than last year (2909), and more of them were Wellington school-leavers.
International enrolments increased five percent.
Lincoln University said its domestic enrolments were above target at 1177 full-time equivalents.
The University of Canterbury said it had 16,513 full-time domestic students, a seven percent increase on last year, and 1214 international students.
Auckland, Otago and AUT recently reported enrolment increases.
The University of Waikato expected to publish enrolment figures this week.
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