Door slams shut at uni

Secondary school students are being shut out of Waikato University as it tries to manage Government-agreed targets for student numbers.

The university has turned away 470 students, including 26 high school students, for semester B, due to start next week.

The university has reached its maximum 8391 equivalent full-time students, agreed with the Tertiary Education Commission, and will not take any more enrolments this year. People who failed to get in are being told to try again in 2011.

Tertiary institutions across the country have been carrying the cost of extra students in the face of increasing enrolments during the recession, but Waikato University Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford said the Government had been clear that situation could not continue.

He said Waikato University had the capacity and the teaching staff to take more students, but was not permitted to do so under the Government cap agreement.

"We would very much like to have accepted all eligible students, but we are restricted in how many new undergraduate students we can take in," Professor Crawford said.

Those who missed out were being directed to polytechnics or wananga, advisers showing them an alternative pathway to university, but the Government was also reviewing courses delivered by polytechnics and wananga so students could be left in limbo.

"That is a major problem because the polytechnics and the wananga are also working in a capped numbers environment so they may not have the capacity," Professor Crawford said.

He said the university was working through restrictions and priorities for 2011 to manage the cap, which has been set for all universities for three years.

Priority was to be given to groups including school leavers, Maori students and those in post-graduate study. The university was also monitoring students whose progression into semester B depended on their marks in semester A.

Though it had not been finalised for Waikato, other universities were considering restricting places in 2011 to high school students who achieved top marks.

Central North Island principals association chair Ngaire Harris said it meant year-13 students needed to be aiming for merit and excellence in NCEA level 3.

"We're going to have to think very carefully about that next

- © Fairfax NZ News