Flavell Te Ururoa: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFlavell Te Ururoa: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 27 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11369. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.TE URUROA FLAVELL (Māori Party—Waiariki)to theMinister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment: What feedback if any has he received about the impact that the new restrictions in student allowance eligibility for those aged 40 and over will have on the goal to increase the number of Māori students enjoying success at higher qualification levels particularly the significant numbers of Māori who have accessed second chance education opportunities?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment):I received very little feedback on this matter. However I can say to the member that over 90 percent of people aged 40 or over use fewer than 120 weeks of student allowance. In fact the average number of weeks used by people aged 40 and over has been just 51 weeks. I can also say that between April 2008 and April 2013 the number of Māori students aged 40 and above studying towards Bachelor’s degrees grew by 24 percent and the number of Māori students aged 40 and above studying postgraduate degrees has grown by 30 percent over that same period.Te Ururoa Flavell: Is he concerned that Māori participation in postgraduate studies is being adversely affected by the caps on student allowances and what opportunity is there to enable the Tertiary Education Commission to direct the funding to where it is most needed in order to achieve its goal to increase the number of Māori students enjoying success at higher qualification levels?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: To the first part of the question no I am not at this stage. The indications I have received so far are that it has not had a significant effect on the participation in postgraduate studies. To the second part the Government’s equity loading fund provides a top-up for student achievement component funding in recognition of the additional costs that may be associated with supporting priority learners like Māori Pasifika and students with disabilities. Thirdly the point would be that the Government is determined to see Māori succeed in tertiary education and since 2008 we have seen a very big increase in Māori and Pasifika students enrolled in higher-level education—in the case of Māori students it was about 15000 in 2008 and just a short time ago it was 20000 this year.Te Ururoa Flavell: Does the Minister agree with tertiary education providers in Gisborne that the changes to level 1 and level 2 student achievement component funding and to the Youth Guarantee are already having the effect of turning away students; if not what assurances can he give those providers that Māori students still requiring study at these levels in order to progress to higher learning will not be disadvantaged?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: No I do not agree that they are causing people to turn students away. In fact my understanding is that around the country there are places in those areas that the member raises. What I can say to him though is that moving from Youth Training to Youth Guarantee has certainly put more challenging targets on the providers in terms of the number of credits achieved and I make no apology for that because we do want to get good results for those students.