54476 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills

54476 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills: What actions, if any, have been taken in the quarter to expand access to scholarships and hardship support for Pacific learners?

Hon Penny Simmonds: The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) has not taken any specific action in the last quarter to expand access to scholarships and hardship support for Pacific learners. As part of the TEC’s ongoing and multi-year approach to improve educational outcomes for all learners, Tertiary Education Organisations (TEOs) are required to have plans in place to support more learners to succeed. TEOs have tailored their approaches to meet the needs of their learners, including Pacific learners. In some instances, this includes access to scholarships and hardship support. The TEC is also aware of a number of publicly funded scholarships currently available to support Pacific learners. This includes, for example, the Pacific Health Scholarship which is administered by Health New Zealand and offers up to $10,000 for eligible students undertaking a health course of study. Health New Zealand has advised that the Pacific Health Scholarship received an additional $680,000 for the 2023/2024 investment round. This funding contributed to increasing the number of scholarships available to learners (314 learners received a scholarship in 2024). In 2024, the scholarship received a total of 431 applications which is a 48% increase from the 291 applications received in 2023. To improve accessibility to the scholarship for learners, changes were made to the eligibility criterion and promotion of the scholarship was increased through the utilisation of multiple channels. As this scholarship runs on an annual basis, relevant information relating to the last quarter is not available.