ITI Articles

“ITI opposes completely the Government’s new Bill to levy honest providers for the failures of a couple of private training establishments (PTEs). If anyone should be paying the cost of students’ lost money it should be the owners of those companies or the government agencies that missed the signs of failure”, said Dave Guerin, ITI executive director, after presenting ITI’s submission to the Education and Science Committee today. “The PTE sector should not be treated as an open chequebook for other people’s mistakes.”

“Charging successful business for the failures of their competitors is a very strange approach and it is not implemented anywhere else in this country. The biggest risk for providers is that their competitors will simply close up shop when they hit hard times, because they know that the Government will cover their liabilities to students. Since the Government has no standing as a creditor, it will not be able to claim the money back but other PTEs will be left to pick up the pieces.”

“There are also a number of technical deficiencies in the Bill as well that further extend the liability for PTEs. There is no limit on the ‘administration’ charges that Government agencies can pass onto PTEs. The people drafting the Bill do not seem to have aligned this policy with other NZQA policies either, and the wording will create confusion in the white heat of a PTE closure. This is the by-product of yet another rush-job without adequate consultation.”

“This policy area is complex and any new policies need to be carried out in conjunction with the industry and suppliers of student fee protection products. Hopefully, we can get some real discussion in the select committee and with the Minister over the next few months.”

Contact Dave Guerin at 04 499 8159 or 021 404 334. Independent Tertiary Institutions (ITI) is a group of 15 high quality private tertiary education providers enrolling over 6,000 students pa.