Tertiary institutions are likely to push the Government's enrolment caps to their limit this year, with some signalling they might break the rules.
The Government subsidises only an agreed upon number of students and discourages institutions from exceeding that number by more than 3%.
The institutions get no government subsidies for the extra students, but the Government does incur costs for student loans and allowances.
Vice-Chancellors Committee chairman Derek McCormack expects universities will break the 3% limit this year, saying they are so close to the benchmark it will be hard to avoid going over it.
McCormack says the Government will need to change its policy soon.
Several polytechnics have already stopped enrolments for the year, but at least three other tertiary institutions have indicated they might break Government enrolment limits.
Te Wananga o Aotearoa chief executive Bentham Ohia says his institution is considering exceeding the 3% limit in order to meet demand.
Two universities, Otago and Lincoln, also indicated earlier this year that they might also break the limit.
Victoria University halts NZ enrolments
About 1500 New Zealand students will miss out on enrolling at Victoria University this year as the university stops accepting New Zealand students for the rest of this year.
Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh says the university is only funded by the Government to educate about 16,000 full time students this year, and if it had allowed its enrolment pattern to continue over the year it would have ended up with about 1500 unfunded students.
The University Council decided on Wednesday not to allow any more New Zealand students to sign up for undergraduate courses for the rest of 2010.
"We will have a number of unfunded students as it is," Professor Walsh says, "but we simply could not afford to have 1500 unfunded students."
Professor Walsh says international students will still be able to enrol because they pay their fees in full.
