Funding Te Kaupapa Whaioranga

MANA ATUA, MANA TANGATA

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Decision-making must be democratic, equitable and inclusive.

MANA WHENUA Tertiary education should foster a sense of belonging, innovation and creativity.

MANA MOTUHAKE Staff and students must have authority and influence over their work. Tertiary education institutions and their people must act as a critic and conscience of society.

AHU KĀWANATANGA

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Staff and students must be able to collaborate and share their collective work with their communities.

MANA TIRITI

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Tertiary education should promote participation, protection and partnership for all people.

Our public tertiary education system belongs to all New Zealanders.

We must ensure that tertiary education provision receives adequate funding at all levels, in all communities, and for all learners, whatever their current skill, aptitude and knowledge levels.

We must ensure that within our tertiary education institutions all staff and students have responsible autonomy and academic freedom.

READ TE KAUPAPA WHAIORANGA: TEU.AC.NZ/BLUEPRINT

The Five Principles of Te Kaupapa Whaioranga

Te Kaupapa Whaioranga: ThetheBlueprint for funding Māori Tertiary forEducation

Funding Te Kaupapa Whaioranga In 2009, the government spent $4.6 billion on tertiary education. That included all its student support - loans and allowances.1 This year Treasury forecasts the government will spend $4.2 billion.2 However, if we adjusted the 2009 figure by inflation, it would now be $5 billion.3 Treasury forecasts that tertiary education spending will remain nearly flat until at least 2018, while inflation will rise another 11 percent by the end of 2018.4 Over a similar period (2009 to 2012), the number of actual student places (rather than funded student places) grew by over 20,000 people.5 The tertiary education system is funding more people for less money while costs rise. this sounds impressive, but it is also unsustainable.6 Between 1995 and 2010, New Zealand was among a minority of countries that decreased its tertiary education expenditure per student.7 Our annual Many countries do not include these as tertiary education spending but as social welfare spending so we need to be aware of that distinction when making comparisons.

2 http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/forecasts/hyefu2013/086a.htm 3 10.5 percent CPI inflation from Q1 2009 to Q4 2013 4 http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/forecasts/hyefu2013/003.htm 5 http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/forecasts/befu2013/080.htm EFTS remained steady, falling slightly from 246,041 in 2009 to est. 241,623 in 2014.

6 “We’ve made some changes in the last two years that have resulted in an additional 20,000 places at universities and polytechs and the like without putting any more money in,” tertiary education minister Steven Joyce http:// tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/interview-steven-joyce-transcript-4126349 7 OECD Education at a Glance 2013, p 179. http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag.htm While some of this fall in expenditure per student may be the result of more students doing low-level (thus cheaper) courses, or of a growing proportion of part-time students, those are also pressures facing other countries. Within the OECD expenditure per student rose an average of 8 percent once adjusted for inflation over the period 2005-2010, but fell 4 percent in New Zealand over the same period.

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expenditure per student (US$10,418 converted using PPPs)8 is considerably below the OECD average (US$13,528 converted using PPPs) and we have some of the most expensive student fees in the OECD.9 New Zealand’s public investment in tertiary education is less than the OECD average, 66.3 percent of the total cost, compared with 68.4 percent in all OECD countries,10 and our investment is also slightly less as a percentage of GDP.11 In the highly successful Nordic countries - Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland - governments all fund more than 90 percent of tertiary education. In countries where the government contributes the least (the United Kingdom, the United States and Chile), education is very expensive for students and more difficult to access as a result.

We need to invest money to fix the problem Te Kaupapa Whaioranga believes that funding for tertiary education is an investment, not a cost. Education is a human right - it needs adequate funding to be 8

9 10 11

Ibid, p 174, In equivalent USD converted using PPPs for GDP, by level of education, based on fulltime equivalents OECD Education at a Glance, p 224 Ibid, p 207 Ibid , p 193

Cheryl Jackson, WestREAP

accessible and of a high quality. Education is a public good, not a commodity. Whilst it has private benefits, its greatest benefit is to society and communities – it is a resource that can be used for social and economic gain, but its yield is directly related to what we invest in it.

Education has a vital social and economic transformative role. It builds and defends democracy; it contributes to community development and wellbeing; it promotes equality and understanding among people.12 To fix our tertiary education system - to make it accessible, affordable and high quality for all New Zealanders - will cost money. The total bill will be over $1 billion per year. That includes restoring funding to the level it was before significant cuts in 2009. It also includes addressing longstanding issues such as ensuring students have lower fees and the student allowance support they need to study, putting an end to low wages and precarious work in some corners of the tertiary education sector, and investing in high quality education.

That is significant investment, but we believe it is a crucial one. However, we do not believe we can or should achieve this by cutting other important social services.

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Funding Tertiary Education - TEU Policy http:// teu.ac.nz/2011/11/funding-of-tertiary-educationteu-policy/

The tertiary education system is funding more people for less money while costs rise.

How will we pay for it?

Let us be up front. We cannot meet our goals for a high quality public accessible tertiary education system that meets the needs of all New Zealanders without spending money. And we cannot spend that money without raising it from taxes.

New Zealand government spends about $90 billion each year,13 of which tertiary education made up about 4.4 billion in 2013.14 New Zealand raises about $61 billion in tax directly and indirectly each year.15 New Zealand’s top tax rate of 33 percent on incomes above $70,000 is lower than all 27 other high-income nations in the OECD, after including social security and payroll taxes (which do not exist in this country). Rich New Zealanders also do not pay any tax on capital gains that most other countries would tax.16 We believe that the country has to rebuild its tertiary education system by making its tax policy more progressive and lifting the top tax rate on the highest income earners. Among those earners will be some of our own TEU members.

Many of the solutions outlined in Te Kaupapa Whaioranga cost money. A high quality accessible democratic tertiary education system that meets the needs of our communities is an investment that we must be willing to spend on by introducing a more progressive tax system.

13 This includes expenses of SOEs and Crown Entities. Core Crown expenses are around $72 billion (2013).

14 http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/forecasts/hyefu2013/086a.htm 15 This is forecast to rise quite quickly as the economy grows - $64b in 2013, $68b in 2014, $72b in 2015 etc.

16 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10783837, Rob Salmond, The New NZ Tax System, Institute of Policy Studies, Wellington, 2011.

Tertiary eduation funding 2009

=

$4.6

billion

Tertiary education funding 2014

=

$4.2

billion

If 2009 funding were adjusted for inflation =

$5.0

billion

Design credits: Ian Barnard for blueprint background www.ianbarnard.co.uk/free-blueprint-style-background-vector/ Vector.me for the pen image vector.me/browse/129044/set_of_ realistic_pencil Kristina DC Hoeppner for the image of NZ money www.flickr. com/photos/4nitsirk/4663879483