Programme) Amendment Bill be considered
Programme) Amendment Bill be
The ayes have it. Call on Government Order of the Day No. 4. Education
(Tertiary Education and Other
(Tertiary Education and Other Matters) Amendment
reading. I call the Hon Jenny Salesa. I move that the Education
(Tertiary Education and Other
Matters) Amendment Bill be now read
a third time. Madam Speaker, I
thank the members of the select
committee who have done a lot of work on this
bill. I would also like to thank the
over 2,000
over 2,000 individuals and organisations who made submissions
during the select committee process.
Their suggestions have
helped to improve this bill. I would
also like to acknowledge and
thank the Minister of Education, the Hon Chris
Hipkins a vansing this bill. I
want to focus my comments
tonight on three key themes of this
bill. First, I want to talk about
increasing provider
increasing provider accountability and strengthening
and strengthening monitoring and compliance. Second, I would like
to discuss supporting fair treatment of
tertiary education providers
and third, I'd like to talk about
broadening student protection
arrangements as proposed
by this legislation. Madam Speaker, I now
turn to the first
provider accountability and strengthening monitoring and
compliance. This
compliance. This legislation balances a more flexible system with
appropriate
appropriate accountability and appropriate accountability and
monitoring to ensure that
our providers can focus on
delivering better outcomes for all
of our students. Firstly, the
freshry education
students. Firstly, the freshry
Commission, TEC, will be able to recover costs for
an investigation when a provider is found to be at
fault. Madam Speaker, we
have read in the news and the media many instances where
this has been the case here in Aotearoa
New Zealand. This legislation we're
introducing will actually address
that issue. This provides a strong
incentive, we believe, for
our providers to cooperate with our
investigations and to ensure that
they
investigations and to ensure that
quickly. Secondly, this bill will allow the Tertiary Education
Commission and the Minister
of Education to made funding approval
subject to conditions that they
consider necessary,
consider necessary, reasonably necessary, for effectively
monitoring the performers
of the system and the tertiary education
sector overall. This can be useful
to quickly address any
unforeseen issues and it should help
prevent potential misuse of public funding.
Thirdly, this bill aligns record
keeping and
keeping and inspection requirements for tertiary
for tertiary education institutions with those of private training
with those of private training
establishments. All
establishments. All tertiary education organisations will
therefore be required to
maintain records of the use of
Government funding and how they can complying
funding and how they can complying
with funding conditions. This will
ensure that the Tertiary Education
Commission is able to access
important information when required.
Madam Speaker, this
bill will introduce a new offence
provision for making false representations on
a student's record of achievement
and it will significantly
strengthen the offence provisions by
increasing the penalty for such offences
concerning falsification of student
records from
concerning falsification of student
a strong incentive, we believe, for providers to act honestly and
with due diligence in the maintenance
of student records and, again,
Madam Speaker, we have read in many
media coverages, instances where this has
been the
been the case where unfortunately some of our providers have falsified
some records and it does not
help Aotearoa New Zealand's international
records, our international standings
when this happens. What we know is
whether it is private training
establishments, whether it is a
Polytechnic or any
other institutions, when this
actually happen, it actually,
unfortunately smears the reputation of our
happen, it actually, unfortunately tertiary education institution
internationally and, Madam
Speaker, it is not in any of
our interest that this kind of
behaviour continues in the future. So we
believe that overall these
changes will
will increase provider accountability, that it will
strengthen the system and that
strengthen the system and that
monitoring and compliance of
tertiary education providers across the system will be so
much more improved. The second theme I would
like to discuss, Madam Speaker, is
the fair treatment of
tertiary education providers. This Government
is committed to supporting a
better and fairer tertiary sector. That
is why we have listened
to the submissions of over
2,000 individuals and organisations
when they presented to the
select committee, when they have told
us that they would like
fair treatment, especially in terms of funding. We
are introducing a
new term, Madam Speaker. Currently, we
have what's called the private
training establishment, PTE. This
legislation will introduce a new term called
Community
Community Tertiary Education Provider, CTEP. The
current term private training establishment or
PTE does not establish between for
profit or
PTE does not establish between for
providers. Nor does it accurately reflect, Madam Speaker,
their intentions and in our opinion
this is not fair. When you cannot tell
whether a provider is a
whether a provider is a
profit, it is not fair. So we will be addressing this.
profit, it is not fair. So we will be addressing this. This bill will
also allow Farne Aga does warn Angea
currently in legislation. Currently only Wananga are
disadvantaged because they are not
having their own title in law and it is
not fair to them that they face
difficulties in finding an
appropriate English translation of their own title or
the fact that they cannot
put in an application to use a protected term.
So, Madam Speaker, we believe that
allowing wananga to use protected
temps such as university or
temps such as university or
Polytechnic will be treating
our Polytechnic will be treating our
wananga fair. There will be a tough
test for applicants to use protected
term. The Minister
of Education will have to be satis feed that
the use of protected terms such as the use of protected terms such as
Polytechnic or university
must be adhered to and for this to
happen the minister will also have to
consult with experts in
Maori education who have the knowledge and
we are confident that this
consulting with experts who
have the knowledge of who should be able to
use a protected term of
Polytechnic or university with the advice of
specialists in Maori tertiary
education ha the term will,
indeed, still be protected. I am comfortable
still be protected. I am comfortable
with the use of the term and the
fact that wananga will now be
able to apply to use these two
protected terms. The third and final theme
I would like to discuss tonight is
broadening student protection
broadening student protection
arrangements to fulfil the pastoral
care responsibilities to
international students, schools
need to be able to respond
to situations, especially those where an
international student's
international student's behaviour puts themselves or
international student's behaviour puts themselves or puts other
This bill clarifies that This bill clarifies that
international student enrolment is
governed by the inrollment contract.
international student enrolment is What this means is that we will
ensure that the contract relating to
What this means is that we will international students under the age
of 18,
international students under the age
Contract and Commercial Law Act of 2017 as well
as the education pastoral care of international
students code of practice
will apply to those who are under the
age of 18. The change that we are proposing
will allow schools to move
effectively to manage international
students' miss conduct by
taking appropriate action
appropriate action if students breach
breach their enrolment contracts. This bill will extend the
coverage of export education levy to
international students enrolled in
international students enrolled in
private schools.
international students enrolled in private schools. This will protect
international students enrolled in those students in the same way
as PTE students are currently
protected. In conclusion, I would
protected. In conclusion, I would like now to commend the
Education (Tertiary Education and
Other Matters) Amendment Bill to
the House. The question is that the
motion be agreed to. I
call Louise Upston. National will
be supporting this legislation in its third
this legislation in its third
reading. It was introduced
in our time in office and does
a few simple things that I want to cover off in
my brief address. I want to pick
up on a brief
point and want the House to reflect on that as we
go through some of this discussion. The