This story is no longer valid.
Recently, there has been a lot of talk from the Minister of Tertiary Education about the New Zealand taxpayer (they say Government, but don’t be fooled; it is the taxpayers’ money they are investing) getting more “bang for their buck” out of tertiary education. Of course, we have heard this for a while. If I recall correctly, for about a decade! But the action on this seems to be finally coming now.