8. Question No. 8—EducationKIERAN McANULTY (Labour) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 8—Education8. KIERAN McANULTY (Labour) to the Minister of Education: What actions has the Government taken to ensure that students in need can access support to learn online in tertiary education?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): The Government announced over the weekend $20 million for technology access for tertiary students so that we can make digital devices and internet connections available for students who do not otherwise have those in their homes. While online learning is being undertaken by tertiary organisations in response to COVID-19 many students don't have access to the appropriate devices or the appropriate internet connections to enable them to undertake technology-enabled learning. Many students still go on to the campus in order to access equipment to learn. Since the country moved into lockdown officials have worked with the tertiary institutes to identify the number of students—[Interruption] SPEAKER: Order! Order! Look I apologise to the member and with my previous history I'm reluctant to say it but if members want to do something like that they should take it outside. Chris Hipkins continue.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: When the country moved into lockdown officials worked with tertiary institutes to identify the number of students who they thought didn't have access to the right devices and didn't have broadband internet. So the $20 million fund is part of our overall response which of course includes $87.7 million that the Government is funding across schools and early learning services for devices connections and hard packs of materials. Kieran McAnulty: How many learners were identified as needing support for digital devices and technology?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The work undertaken by the institutions identified that around 11150 learners at tertiary organisations probably don't have appropriate devices to engage in technology-enabled learning while a slightly higher number—11350—don't have access to broadband at home. The package that we are funding provides for devices and internet connections for up to 18500 learners.Kieran McAnulty: How will this money be distributed to universities private training establishments (PTEs) polytechnics and wānanga?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: In the first instance half of the fund is being allocated to tertiary organisations on the basis of the number of learners that they have with a particular weighting to priority learners. For example the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology has been allocated $2.3 million to start purchasing devices and connections. The second half of the fund will be available on application from organisations. Kieran McAnulty: How will students be selected for support for devices and internet connections from the universities wānanga PTEs and polytechnics?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: We want to make it as easy as possible to get these resources to the students that need them and we want to enable institutions to use their existing supply chains where possible so the funding is being allocated to the institutions and the students that need them should speak to their university wānanga PTE or polytech in the first instance.Hon Nikki Kaye: How does that support students that are currently locked out of their accommodation paying bills to their tertiary providers? How are they going to benefit from that online learning?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Well if the accommodation that they are in does not have broadband access or does not have a device that they can use to access the internet and to access online learning then they will be able to do that. With regard to the institutions continuing to charge rent for rooms that students are unable to occupy I've been very clear around my expectations on that. Those organisations that are accessing the wage subsidy should not be charging full rent to the students for rooms that they cannot use. The universities in particular have a very healthy balance sheet position which means that they do not need to take some of the measures that they are taking now and I expect them to behave responsibly and with a degree of compassion towards their learners.