Another huge fail

Kiwibuild is the highest profile failure for Labour, but far from the only one. Let’s look at their free fees policy which they claimed was the solution to the future of work, and would result in many more people undertaking tertiary education.

From the Herald:

• Tertiary student numbers dropped by 4,080 in the first year of free fees. Yes that’s right they spent hundreds of millions on a policy that saw fewer people doing tertiary study
• Labour said 80,000 students would take up fees free study. In fact only 42,150 did.
• One third of fees-free students failed or withdrew from at least one course
• Fees-free students are more likely to be European than other students, so it is not leading to more Maori in tertiary education
• Fees-free students are more likely to study at university than other students so it is not leading to more trades training.
• So the major beneficiary of fees free has been white university students