NZ has one of the highest school dropout rates, with the sixth-lowest high-school completion rate in the developed world, a report has found.

When 13-year-old Rennie Qin arrived from China four years ago she couldn't speak English and her parents couldn't afford to send her to the "good schools" - but that wasn't enough to stop her from striving for the top.

Tertiary education providers will lose some funding if their students suffer high failure and drop out rates, Steven Joyce says.

Despite the recession, export education is set for another boom year - thanks largely to India.

An American author who claims to have earned a doctorate at Victoria University has no such qualification, the university says.

Tertiary students who fail more than half their courses may lose their student loans as the Government moves to crack down on abuse.

The Government is taking aim at lazy students and courses with high dropout or failure rates in looming reforms in tertiary education.

Unitec training first set up for Maori and Pasifika.