University caps mean 31 miss out on places

Thirty-one people have missed out on places at the University of Otago this semester as a result of the university's new enrolment cap policy.

The number was considered low, academic and international deputy vice-chancellor Prof Vernon Squire said.

Another 32 students were not accepted because they submitted incomplete applications and failed to provide further information within the deadline, he said.

In May, in an attempt to limit burgeoning domestic roll growth, the university introduced caps on 20 programmes for the second semester, including 10 previously open-entry undergraduate degrees.

Universities negotiate with the Tertiary Education Commission on the number of domestic students the Government will fund, and Otago estimated that even with enrolment caps, it would be carrying between 520 and 550 unfunded domestic students by the end of the year.

Other universities are facing similar roll-growth pressure and the University of Auckland and Victoria University in Wellington have also announced tighter entry criteria this year or next year.

When Otago's semester two caps policy was introduced, it was estimated between 50 and 60 students might miss out on places.

A request for an interview was declined.

In a written statement, Prof Squire said 232 people had applied for semester two places, a smaller number than expected.

Partly as a consequence of that, the number of students declined was also low, he said.

Those who missed out were a mix of part-time and full-time students whose intended areas of study were BA, BSc, BCom and BTheol.

Some might have applied for more than one programme.

The applicants "could not demonstrate the ability to successfully undertake academic study at the university", he said.

They were were a mix of new students seeking to enrol in their first year of study, students seeking to transfer from other universities and former Otago students seeking to return to study, often after some time away.