Maharey repeats pledge to axe funding for 'dubious' courses

By ANNE BESTON

Tertiary Education Minister Steve Maharey has admitted some tertiary courses are of "dubious quality" and pledged to scrap them.

But the minister defended coffee-making and "singalong" courses during another grilling in Parliament yesterday.

National Party education spokesman Bill English asked the minister whether he agreed the courses were of debatable quality.

Mr Maharey replied that Gisborne's Tairawhiti Polytechnic's course providing six nights of golf at a cost of $40 per student might not be offered again.

But Hawkes Bay-based Eastern Institute of Technology's "singalong" course, where students sing along to the radio, was aimed at "getting people into the Maori language".

The coffee-making course was aimed at getting people into the restaurant trade.

"As minister I am very interested in making sure that all courses make a contribution," Mr Maharey said.

"When I find them to be dubious, they will not happen any more."

Meanwhile, more than 500 Nelson people have enrolled in a free sing-along from the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology.

The free "Waiata on the Airwaves" is broadcast on Fresh FM and receives $167,500 of Government funding. It has 536 students who listen to the radio several times a week and sing along with a book provided.

Mr Maharey said no questions had been raised about the Nelson course, so the institute would not be looked at as part of the Tertiary Education Commission and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority investigation.

NMIT chief executive Neil Barns said he would be "hugely disappointed" if the waiata course was halted.

It was very worthwhile and followed the Government's tertiary education strategy by "increasing usage and revitalising te reo Maori".