Cullen to fail low-grade courses

Michael Cullen

The Government today moved to stop universities and polytechnics cramming students into lecture halls and instead offer incentives to those who produce graduates with good qualifications and job prospects.

In the biggest reforms to tertiary funding in 15 years, the Government wants to stop handing out money for "bums-on-seats" in favour of rewarding performance.

Tertiary Education Minister Michael Cullen proposed future directions for funding universities, polytechnics and private providers at the Beehive this morning.


He said: "Funding will no longer solely be driven by what students decide to enrol in. Rather we are moving to a system driven more by outcomes we need so the Government can achieve its economic and social policies."


The aim is to clamp down on low-grade courses, which offer little or no benefit, and instead direct the Government's $2 billion annual funding of the sector towards areas important to New Zealand's economic and social development.

Ministry of Education figures show about 38,000 domestic students completed non-degree courses in 2000. By 2004 that number had risen to more than 80,000.

Over the same period, the numbers completing a bachelors degree rose by fewer than 900 - from 22,217 to 23,109.

But institutions are largely funded on enrolments and those figures do not take into account the vast numbers of students who fail to complete a course.

Other ministry figures show that just 40 per cent of students who began a bachelors degree in 1999 had completed the qualification four years later.

And the controversial sub-degree Cool-IT computer course at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) enrolled 18,000 students, but only 603 completed the programme.

It is understood the Government wants to move away from bulk-funding institutions for the number of students they attract and concentrate on outcomes, such as student completion and employment rates.

The new funding systems, which will be given to the sector for consultation, are likely to see a divide created between universities and polytechnics, private providers, wananga and colleges of education.

The Government wants to establish different funding streams for the different pathways through the tertiary sector. The proposals are part of its tertiary strategy, which puts quality teaching, learning and research at the top of the priority list.

But it is also likely to signal potential winners and losers in the battle for a share of the annual funding pot.

It comes after several high-profile funding blowouts where institutes enrolled huge numbers of students for low-grade courses.

CPIT received $15 million in Government funding for its Cool-IT course, and Te Wananga o Aotearoa was given $156 million for courses in 2004, which included a home-study programme for new immigrants.

In August last year the Government announced a short-term fix, including prohibiting any certificate- or diploma-level course growing by more than 200 equivalent full-time students in any 12-month period unless approved in advance.

Today's plans are intended to be long-term solutions, but are unlikely to mean any significant new injection of money.

Dr Neil Barns, president of the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics, said before the announcement that there was a degree of apprehension in the sector.

"We are not sure what's going to be in it [the scheme], other than differentiating the sector with funding systems. The question people are asking is how is that going to be done."

National's education spokesman, Bill English, said the Government had wasted "literally hundreds of millions on their failed experiments".


- additional reporting NZPA