Finance Minister Steven Joyce during his Budget 2017 presentation at Parliament. Photo/Mark Mitchell
Finance Minister Steven Joyce during his Budget 2017 presentation at Parliament. Photo/Mark Mitchell
Minister of Finance Steven Joyce has confirmed that a claim in a meme circulating online is essentially correct - he did not complete eight economics papers while at university in the 1980s.
But his press secretary says he was focusing on his fledgling radio career at the time.
The image,which has been doing the rounds on Facebook, purports to show the National MP's university transcript from 1984-1986.
Five economics-related papers are marked as DNC - Did Not Complete - and two are marked WD - Withdrawn. An eighth failed paper is marked with an E grade.
It is not clear from the transcript at what point Joyce withdrew from the papers, or whether he sat exams.
"I went to Massey University, from 1981 to 1985 in Palmerston North. I did a vet intermediate and didn't quite make the cut for vet school so I did a zoology degree for two years," he told the magazine.
"In the first three years I passed all my papers, I was very excited. And then I started in student radio. In my fourth year I was doing economics papers. I sat six and passed three.
"In my fifth year I enrolled for three and passed none. By that time I was fully into radio."
University study was free for all students while Joyce was at Massey University.
