KEY POINTS:
Southland Mayor Tim Shadbolt will visit Parliament today to object to Government policy changes under which Southland Institute of Technology will lose over $6 million in funding next year.
Representatives from SIT were also travelling to Wellington to meet tertiary education minister Pete Hodgson about the funding cuts.
SIT has lost significant funding because of new rules which stop polytechnics running courses outside their own regions, unless they are specialised courses which are not already offered in the other region.
The new policy means Southland Institute of Technology has a funding drop of $6.2 million from this year, and it has warned it will mean the end of its zero-fees policy.
Mr Shadbolt has taken out full-page ads criticising the policy and has warned he will campaign to "bring down the Government" and potentially breach new electoral advertising limits next year.
Mr Hodgson said SIT sought the meeting two weeks ago and it would allow both sides to put their cases.
The Government also suggested Southland Institute was the author of its own woes by ignoring advice not to increase its student numbers this year.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Helen Clark said the funding given to all Southland-based institutes combined had increased. However, SIT had ignored advice to keep student numbers at 2006 levels this year in preparation for the 2008 funding round.
While SIT's funding for next year was similar to that in 2006, it was a marked decrease from 2007 funding because it had increased its student numbers this year, including by offering courses in Christchurch and internet courses.
Rural Affairs Damien O'Connor has also backed away from his initial concerns about funding cuts. He had asked provincial polytechnics to report on the impact of the funding cuts because he was concerned smaller regional polytechnics had been hit hard by the tertiary education reforms.
National Party spokesman Paul Hutchison said Mr O'Connor was contradicting the policy.
Mr Hutchison said he had "huge admiration" for Mr Shadbolt for his stance.
"This Government is punishing institutions that are providing quality and value for money while propping up some of the under-performing institutions."
Yesterday Mr O'Connor said he had heard from many polytechnics and was confident they were kept well-informed of the reasons for the changes and how it would affect them individually.
A Tertiary Education Commission spokeswoman said in Christchurch four polytechnics offer driver training, but from next year only one would be funded. In other areas, local polytechnics were taking over the courses which were previously run by polytechnics from afar, she said.
