KEY POINTS:
Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt says he will fight to bring down the Government if funding to the Southern Institute of Technology is cut.
The Government will announce today how much money universities, polytechnics and other tertiary institutions will get for the next three years.
Mr Shadbolt said a proposed $8 million cut for the institute would lead to a loss of 1400 students and be bad for the region.
"This is a direct attack on everything we've done and everything we've achieved in the last five years and we're not going to stop on Friday and say, 'Oh well, that's the end of it'," he told Radio New Zealand.
"There's an election coming up and we'll be doing everything we possibly can. We're going to launch a campaign to bring down this Government if they are going to launch a campaign to bring down our province."
He said the proposed funding cut came as the Tertiary Education Commission moved to implement "a fundamentally flawed and inequitable" approach to tertiary education reforms.
"This institution has underpinned the turnaround in Southland's fortunes," with industry and community help.
- NZPA
