12 April 2024
Tēnā koe Mitchell
Official Information Act request
Thank you for your email of 8 March 2024, requesting information about the
University of Canterbury (UC).
On 13 March 2024, you refined your request by confirming that the date range
would be the last 5 years.
You also refined your request to the total number of students with student loan,
total with student allowance, total with both, and total without student loan or
allowance.
I have considered your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
Please find my decision set out below.
Please see the
Appendix which provides the number of Student Allowance
and Student Loan Fees paid for study at the UC between 1 January 2019
and 29 February 2024, broken down by calendar year.
Please note that other components of Student Loan or assistance (Living Costs,
Course Related Costs and administration fees) cannot be linked to a particular
education provider in the Ministry’s reporting. As such, this data excludes students
who may be attending UC and receiving Student Loan assistance not for study fees
(for example, only receiving a payment for Living Costs).
The part of your request that asks for the total number of students at the UC that
are not receiving a Student Loan was transferred to the UC on 5 April 2024
as the information is believed to be held by the University.
The part of your request that asks for the total number of students at the UC that
are not receiving a Student Allowance is refused under section 18(g) of the Act
as the information you had requested is not held by the Ministry and I have no
grounds to believe that the information is either held by or closely connected to
the functions of another department, Minister of the Crown or organisation.
I will be publishing this decision letter, with your personal details deleted, on the
Ministry’s website in due course.
If you wish to discuss this response with us, please feel free to contact
[MSD request email].
The Aurora Centre, 56 The Terrace, PO Box 1556, Wellington
– Telephone 04-916 3300 – Facsimile 04-918 0099
If you are not satisfied with my decision on your request, you have the right to
seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to
make a complaint is available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi
pp.
Magnus O’Neill
General Manager
Ministerial and Executive Services
Appendix
Table: The number of Student Allowance and Student Loan Fees paid for study
at the University of Canterbury between 1 January 2019 and 29 February 2024,
broken down by calendar year.
Calendar Year
Student
Student Loan
Distinct
Allowance
Students
2019
3,201
8,961
9,741
2020
3,585
9,318
10,224
2021
3,873
10,158
11,148
2022
3,483
10,077
10,938
2023
3,372
9,999
10,932
2024 (as at 29 February
2,256
7,911
8,655
2024)
Notes:
• This table includes paid Student Allowance and Student Loan Fees only.
• Student Loan Fees are paid to a specific provider.
• Other components of Student Loan assistance (Living Costs, Course Related
Costs and administration fees) cannot be linked to a particular education
provider therefore these are not included.
• No adjustment has been made to account for Loan Fees repayments or
refunds.
• The number for each assistance type is the count of distinct students that
have been paid assistance over the specified year.
• A student may have both the Student Allowance and Student Loan Fees paid
in the same period.
Confidentiality:
• To protect confidentiality the Ministry of Social Development uses processes
to make it difficult to identify an individual person or entity from published
data.
• These data tables have had random rounding to base three applied to all cell
counts in the table.
• The impact of applying random rounding is that columns and rows may not
add exactly to the given column or row totals.
• The published counts will never differ by more than two counts.
