WIT calls on Govt to lift student cap | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Hundreds of students are being turned away from Waiariki Institute of Technology prompting a call from its chief executive for the Government to increase caps on student numbers.

Waiariki is the fastest growing polytechnic in New Zealand.

Chief executive Dr Pim Borren said 200 students had already been turned away from its nursing degree course and he expected more from all courses to be turned away this year.

He said the recession had meant gaining better qualifications was now a better option to secure employment.

However he said if the Government didn't increase polytechnics' funding, more people would "sit on the couch" and become long-term unemployed.

Waiariki has 2200 equivalent full-time students fully enrolled - 1000 of those are new students.

About half of those new students were aged under 20.

At the same time last year, Waiariki had 1300 equivalent full-time students.

However, Waiariki only gets Government funding for a maximum of 3707 students this year.

Last year their cap was 3377 and they had to turn students away from August.

Under the Tertiary Education Commission, funding is geared towards quality of courses and what is relevant to communities.

Waiariki is allowed to grow because the level of qualifications in Rotorua, Taupo, Tokoroa and Whakatane were among the lowest in the country.

Dr Borren said the recession had prompted more people to study this year.

 "There's no question the recession is part of it and the whole youth unemployment," Dr Borren said.

He said "upskilling" was an option for more people this year because there weren't any jobs for young people straight out of school like there had been in the past.

Dr Borren said it was courses such as nursing, teaching or the trades that were popular because people wanted to learn skills that would definitely help them secure jobs.

However, Dr Borren said the Government needed to support polytechnics during the recession and invest in people.

He said the Government should lift caps on student numbers or at least increase them for a couple of years until the recession eased off.

Dr Borren said if people couldn't find jobs and couldn't get into polytechnics because they were too full, they were more likely to sit on the couch and "become long-term unemployed".

He hoped to see an increase in the next Government Budget so student numbers at polytechnics could increase.

International student numbers were also on the rise.

So far this year they have 100 equivalent full-time students enrolled at Waiariki compared with 83 at the same time last year.

However, he expected similar international numbers as last year.

Waiariki was so packed that Dr Borren was looking at other sites for parking.

Staff are having to park at Te Puia and are catching a bus from there to cross the road because there wasn't enough room for them.

The Rotorua campus isn't the only one to see growth.

The Tokoroa campus has grown from about 26 students at this time last year to 100 at the same time this year.

Student numbers at the Whakatane and Taupo campuses were also up slightly on last year.

"We're the fastest growing polytechnic in the country."