Editorial: Pointing students in right direction

Education is probably the most important of public services. It is the key to individual opportunity and, increasingly, to economic prosperity for a nation as a whole. New Zealand, as the Our Turn series reports today, spends a higher proportion of its income on publicly funded education than most rich countries do. Yet our economy has been getting poorer by comparison with theirs. That might suggest that we are not getting the return from educational investment we should be.

Put another way, not enough of the investment is going into the studies that bring the greatest return to the economy. The reason could be that students, whose choices have largely governed tertiary investment for a decade now, are not attracted in sufficient numbers to science and engineering, which are said to hold the most lucrative potential from a national point of view. Or it could be that secondary schools are not teaching the sciences and mathematics well enough to entice students to pursue those subjects at higher levels.

The Government is convinced that student choices are the problem. It has resolved to set up a Tertiary Education Commission to decide how public money will be spent. That is likely to mean fewer places in popular courses such as commerce, law and humanities and more money for the knowledge and skills in short supply.

We are unlikely to go as far as Singapore, which has a National Manpower Council to set enrolment targets for each university and polytechnic, but we may see the universities distinguished from polytechnics and funded differently. Almost certainly, funds will be diverted from private training providers to the public sector. Industry Training Organisations, which give companies a voice in designing tertiary courses for their sector, may be subservient to the commission.

The Singapore Government takes an active role in publicising the places in the economy in which skilled people are needed, running a network of career information centres. It publishes average salaries for all occupations. In Taiwan a similar manpower planning agency constantly estimates the coming needs of different sectors and funds extra courses when it sees shortages looming.

In Ireland there is a system similar to that which the Government here seems to have in mind. The state negotiates with tertiary institutions to decide which courses will be funded. Students do not necessarily get to follow their first choice. In Israel, too, institutions are financed to produce the number of graduates the state believes are needed. And universities are given extra funds for advanced research, an arrangement that Auckland University would like to see adopted here.

The survey has found that not many comparable countries charge students fees as high as New Zealand, Australia and the United States do. But there is a trade-off. Students' choices are more restricted in those countries where tertiary courses are free or nearly free. New Zealand has vastly increased the numbers of young people going on to higher education since the introduction of significant charges and the loans to cover them.

We are sometimes warned that the loans are detrimental to the country's educational investment, giving graduates an added incentive to go overseas rather than repay them. But student loans are common in the countries we have surveyed and the terms of repayment here are more generous than many.

If the Government is going to take tighter control of the public investment, and restrict students' choices, it becomes harder to ask students to contribute as much to the cost. But we should continue to respect students' preferences. They know their own potential, and the whole economy will probably perform better when they are free to develop it to the full.

If the Government is seeking a more active role, let it be in secondary education where to interests of students can be kindled most effectively in the subjects that lead to the skills we need. And to fill transitory skill shortages the Government should be looking to short courses, which the private sector runs effectively. We have lifted our educational investment substantially over the past decade. In time it will bear fruit.

Our turn

Send us your feedback:

Simon Collins

Letters to the editor (newspaper)

Other stories in this feature


Related features:

The jobs challenge

Common core values

href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=57032">The knowledge society

Official website:

Catching the Knowledge Wave