Government releases five year tertiary education strategy

3.00pm

The Government has today released its Tertiary Education Strategy, a five-year blueprint for what it said was a more connected tertiary system.

"The strategy will ensure that excellence is fostered in the tertiary education sector and it responds more effectively to New Zealand's economic growth and social development," said Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey.

Mr Maharey said the plan contained six goals:

* strengthen system capability and quality;

* contribute to the achievement of Maori development aspirations;

* raise foundation skills so that all people can participate in the "Knowledge Society";

* educate for Pacific people's development and success;

* strengthen research, knowledge creation and uptake.

Mr Maharey said a new Tertiary Education Commission would be created on July 1 to oversee the implementation of the new strategy.

The commission would be responsible for allocating funding of $1.6 billion to public and private tertiary providers according to a new "integrated tertiary funding framework" the details of which would be announced in the 2002 budget.

The New Zealand University Student's Association, (NZUSA) said it was disappointed with the new strategy, saying it prioritised the needs of business over all other functions of tertiary education.

NZUSA co-president Andrew Campbell said the initial "vision" of the tertiary reform process had "deteriorated into a tertiary system being little more than a factory to produce the specific skill needs of business".

The "big questions" of funding had not been answered in the new strategy "except to say that courses that do not meet the goals of the strategy will not be funded", he said in a statement.

"Students want a strategy that supports a broad-based education system based around quality and access, not business needs," he said.

Mr Campbell was also critical that the strategy did not mention private tertiary providers "that unnecessarily soak up a large amount of the government spend on tertiary education."

Private training establishment (PTE) Adventure Education welcomed the new strategy but warned the Government against policies "with the potential to undermine the significant investments made by PTEs".

Mark Hellyer of Adventure Education said: "While few people could argue with objectives set out in the document ... some of the all-important details relating to the funding to both private and public institutions are yet to be finalised in the budget."

"For PTEs which are capitalised by private investment any prospect that funding will no longer be available for students could mean significant losses", he said in a statement.

Many PTEs were recognised as experts in the industries for which they train people and Mr Hellyer called for "the development of a funding framework that maintains a level playing field for public and private providers alike".

The Association of University Staff also welcomed the new strategy but was waiting for to see if the upcoming budget demonstrated the Government's commitment to it.

AUS national president Grant Duncan said he "commended" the strategy's emphasis on building institutional capacity, increased quality and excellence in university teaching and research, but "Without significant increases in public investment, the strategy will be no more than colourful rhetoric on glossy paper".

"The key to the success of this strategy will inevitably lie within the qualities of public tertiary education institutions and their staff. These institutions continue to be under-funded," he said in a statement.

- NZPA