Senior government minister Steven Joyce is oiling the wheels in a bid to ensure the last hurdle facing Tauranga's $67 million tertiary campus gets a favourable decision.
Mr Joyce told a National Party-organised election meeting yesterday at Mount Maunganui that the case being put to the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) was "pretty good".
He congratulated the Bay of Plenty Regional Council for establishing the $38 million infrastructure fund, of which $15 million had been pledged to the campus planned to be built in Tauranga's downtown.
Another major step towards the project becoming a reality was the decision last month by the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust to match the council's contribution.
Critical to further progress was Government support through the TEC which invests $3 billion a year in tertiary education and training - effectively everything that makes universities and polytechnics tick.