Posted By

Tags

Unemployment, free training lift student numbers at institutions

John Gerritsen
Auckland, July 20, 2020

 

Victoria University and Manukau Institute of Technology have reported hundreds more mid-year enrolments than normal as job opportunities dry up because of the pandemic’s impact on the economy.

Both institutions say that the average age of the new students is higher than normal and the enrolments are skewed toward postgraduate qualifications, trades, and nursing.

Victoria University

Victoria University Vice-Chancellor Grant Guilford said it received hundreds more mid-year applications than usual.

“That has flowed through close to 700 more enrolments than we had last year, or close to double what we had last year. Of these, 550 students received fees scholarships that the University is offering to people affected by the pandemic,” he said.

Historically, enrolments increased whenever unemployment increased, he said.

“When the economy starts to drop off, jobs start to become more difficult to hold on to, people tend to particularly turn to the humanities and social sciences and the commerce faculties in that situation. So, that is where we are expecting to see the biggest lift and it seems to be playing out this year as well. There are already signs that next year’s enrolments would be higher,” he said.

Manukau Institute of Technology

Manukau Institute of Technology Chief Executive Gus Gilmore said it had about 650 more mid-year enrolments than at the same time last year.

“Our Semester Two enrolments are tracking currently 60% up on last year and a lot of that growth is in the trades area. Engineering, Digital Technologies and Nursing are all showing strong growth.

We are seeing an older age profile coming through the applications where the 26 to 35-year-olds and 36 to 45 are showing really strong increases,” he said.

Many of the students had lost their jobs and needed to retrain, and many were benefiting from the government’s decision to make some trades training fees-free from July, he said.

Canterbury Institute of Technology

Canterbury Institute of Technology (Ara) Tony Gray said its enrolments were about 5% or 6% higher than normal, but he was expecting more enrolments throughout the year.

“There are a whole range of other things that are coming into play. I do not think that we have seen yet the full context of the targeted training and apprenticeship funds that have been released, and I do not think that we have seen the full impact of what is happening from an economic point of view either,” Mr Gray said.

AUT

AUT Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack said that domestic enrolments were about 150 students lower than at the same time last year, but the gap had been closing steadily this week.

It was not yet experiencing a pandemic-influenced jump in enrolments, McCormack said.

“It might be a bit of a lag phase as people think through what they are doing as some jobs now start to become non-viable, some companies down-sizing after they’ve gone through a period of wage subsidy. I think that we might see that happening perhaps in the first semester next year rather than right now,” Mr McCormack said.

John Gerritsen is Education Correspondent for Radio New Zealand. The above Report has been published under a Special Arrangement with www.rnz.co.nz

 

Share this story

Related Stories

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Indian Newslink

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement