31 March 2020
Matthew Schep
[FYI request #12352 email]
Dear Matthew
Thank you for your email of 2 March 2020 to the Ministry of Education requesting the following
information:
1) Under the leadership of former Tertiary Education Minister Pete Hodgson, over
a decade ago, the Ministry of Education undertook an cost investigation into
the concept of a universal tertiary student allowance.
a) Can you please provide me with a copy of any documents or reports that
were published as a part of or as the culmination of that investigation?
b) I would also like to see copies of all emails sent to and from Minister
Hodgson's government email account during his tenure as Tertiary
Education Minister that reference universal student allowance.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
In relation to the first part of your request for documents and reports, attached to this response
is the report completed for Minister Hodgson on the costs of providing a universal student
allowance. I am releasing this to you in part with some information withheld under section
9(2)(a) of the Act to protect the privacy of natural persons.
In terms of the correspondence you have requested from Minister Hodgson’s government
email address. We have considered transferring the request to the Department of Internal
Affairs, as the agency that holds this information, however they have advised they would
refuse this aspect of your request as the way emails from before 2011 are stored would require
substantial collation to sort through. For this reason I have not transferred your request to
them and I am refusing this aspect of your request under section 18(g) of the Act.
Please note, the Ministry now proactively publishes OIA responses on our website. As such,
we may publish this response on our website after five working days. Your name and contact
details will be removed.
Thank you again for your email. You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to review this
decision. You can do this by writing to
[email address] or Office of the
Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.
Yours sincerely
Katrina Sutich
Group Manager
Tertiary Education
OIA: 1222500
National Office, Mātauranga House, 33 Bowen Street, Wellington 6011
PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140. Phone: +64 4 463 8000 Fax: +64 4 463 8001
education.govt.nz