Summer school roll may be cut

The University of Otago is likely to cut student numbers at its popular summer school next year and tighten some other university entry requirements, given pressures from a rising student roll and limited funding.

University officials announced last month that enrolment caps had been placed on 20 undergraduate and sub-degree programmes next semester, and added that caps would also be needed next year.

The vice-chancellor, Prof Sir David Skegg, said that enrolments were increasing faster than the university or Government funding agency, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), had expected.

Otago University has long restricted entry to many specialised programmes, such as law and medicine, which begin in year two of overall study.

But the university had previously never restricted entry to first-year study or open-entry courses.

The university's governing University Council will consider a report at its meeting today arising from a working group study, and a series of detailed recommendations for tightening some overall student entry requirements.

It is also proposed to reduce the number of papers offered at the annual summer school and for enrolment caps to be adhered to for the papers offered.

Having begun as an experiment in 2001, with just 23 papers and 700 students, the school has become increasingly well-known, with about 2000 students taking part in the latest school.

The school starts in early January, and enables people to obtain academic credit for courses by undertaking intensive study for about six weeks.

The working group proposes setting an overall summer school domestic student enrolment cap at 300 equivalent full-time students (EFTS), rather than at the current level of 350 EFTS.

This would reduce enrolments at the school by 50 EFTS, although it was estimated that half of this reduction would redistribute into the later academic year, resulting in an actual cut of 25 EFTS next year.

Although entry to individual summer school papers has always been limited, this would be the first time the overall number of papers had been reduced and other restrictions imposed to help reduce the student roll.

Under new funding rules introduced in 2008, New Zealand's tertiary institutions negotiate a total number of EFTS places at each institution, with the TEC.

They are allowed to exceed the total by 3% but are not funded for those students.

The report to the council noted that the university was experiencing "considerable growth pressure", with a 4% rise in the student roll last year likely to be followed by a similar increase this year.

Even with the semester two limitations previously proposed, the university was likely to enrol 520 to 550 EFTS more than the 17, 740 domestic EFTS it was funded for this year.

Given the "constrained funding environment", the working group believed that Otago should aim to achieve no domestic enrolment growth next year.

"Pipeline growth" resulting from recent earlier roll rises meant the university would need to cut EFTS numbers in some areas if there was to be no domestic roll growth next year, the report noted.