Listen Now: 
The Tertiary Education Union says almost half the positions set up by universities and polytechs to support Maori students have gone.
Maori vice-president James Houkamau says since the incoming National Government replaced funding tagged for Maori support with general equity funding, there has been a process of whitestreaming.
He says over the past seven years specific Maori positions in universities and politics have been lost.
Even if the jobs remain, managers won't release the equity funding for Maori-specific projects, which leads to further attrition.
"People of their own volition decided this is not what they signed up for and the pattern has been Maori through frustration, though whatever, have simply left," Mr Houkamau says.
He says the funding policy puts at risk efforts to get more Maori through tertiary education.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
