Universities feel out of favour over 'shambolic' teacher training funding

Government funding for in-school teacher training heavily favoured a newcomer to teacher education that was headed at the time by the chair of the Teaching Council. * An earlier version of this story stated students received a bursary of $20,660, but the correct 2026 bursary was $19,930. Universities are feeling hard-done-by following the release of figures that show government funding for in-school teacher training heavily favoured a newcomer to teacher education that was headed at the time by the chair of the Teaching Council. The Teachers' Institute was allowed to triple its intake of school-based teacher trainees this year while universities were denied similar growth in what they say was a shambolic and odd process.

Students on one-year School Onsite Training Programme (SOTP) courses were paid $19,930 and were placed in their host schools for three days a week, excluding classroom practicum, while completing a teaching diploma or masters degree. Figures published by the Education Ministry (MOE) show the government gave more than half the 533 places for this year to non-university providers and most of those to the Teachers' Institute, a charity set up by Auckland schools and led at the time by the then-chair of the Teaching Council David Ferguson. Information ission (TEC) funding for those students prompting a late appeal to the commission to approve the money.

Universities say the process for allocating student places for 2026 was overly complex and delayed, which resulted in many failing to fill all of the student places they were allocated. Overall, 286 of the 533 SOTP places allocated for 2026 went to non-universities and 152 of those to the Teachers' Institute. The institute was much more successful than most other organisations at filling the student places it was allocated.

The then-chair of the Teaching Council, David Ferguson. RNZ requested the figures under the Official Information Act (OIA) on 25 February, but was denied in a letter dated 25 May on the basis they would soon be published - which happened this week. The OIA response said the ministry assessed applications for funding and allocated places for 2026 based on its Teacher Demand and Supply report which showed where teachers were most needed.

Text messages released as part of the OIA response showed Ferguson asked the ministry for tips ahead of a meeting with Tertiary Education Commission chief executive Tim Fowler on 20 November 2025. The meeting apparently concerned a late request for an increase in the number of tertiary students the commission would subsidise in 2026. A ministry staff member told Ferguson: "With tim it's really unusual to grow their tec allocation so much, so I think focus on the fact that the business model is aligned with what govt and moe and tec all think is the future. "He needs you to make a case so he can make a case to his board. He's doing us a big favour and will blame the ministry for not telling them about the sotp allocations.

Feel free to let him. The ministry said the texts referred to a situation where the ministry allocated school-based teacher training places to organisations that did not have Tertiary Education Commission funding for their students. "The TEC subsequently approved funding for the additional places across the providers who had not received that funding, it said.

The sector had previously alleged favouritism of the Teaching Institute. The Council of Deans of Education and teacher union the Educational Institute asked earlier this year if the Education Minister Erica Stanford had helped the institute get funding, suggestions the minister and institute denied. The ministry told RNZ a potential conflict of interest was identified. "David Ferguson's appointment to the Teaching Council was included on the SOTP project risk register in August 2025. The conflict was deemed to be a perceived conflict only, as Mr Ferguson's roles on these boards held no bearing or influence on the way that allocation of places to providers were determined.

Procurement was not involved in this process, it said. Asked why the institute's allocation was tripled, but other providers' was not, the ministry did not provide a direct answer. "As more ITE providers participate in the SOTP programme, the distribution of places may result in some providers receiving fewer places and others receiving more depending on their capacity, host school availability and levels of school and student interest, it said. Auckland University's head of School of Education and Social Practice Aaron Wilson said the university started offering an in-school programme for trainee secondary teachers in 2023 - before the Education Ministry began backing the scheme and expanding it."