The Government is signalling a shake up of the tertiary
education sector with Prime Minister John Key today
highlighting it as an area to be targeted this year.
Mr Key, during his statement to Parliament, said there were
"increasingly urgent" problems in tertiary education.
He highlighted courses with high drop out rates and students
who took financial support but did not try or were studying
for personal satisfaction rather than in order to get a job.
"We are concerned that as a consequence of previous ad-hoc
policy changes, there are a large number of tertiary
programmes, particularly below degree level, that have
drop-put rates as high as 50 percent, and that some of these
programmes fail to properly equip students for the jobs they
seek."
The Government would make policy changes to ensure providers
offered courses that were relevant to job opportunities and
that courses were high quality, he said.
The Government would look at policy settings around student
support to ensure "taxpayers' generosity is not being
exploited by those who refuse to take their tertiary studies
seriously, or who show little inclination to transition from
tertiary training into work."
Mr Key said universities suffered under an inflexible and
bureaucratic funding and policy framework.
Last month Mr Key separated off tertiary education from
Education Minister Anne Tolley's responsibilities and gave it
to high-flyer first term MP Steven Joyce.
In an interview about that appointment Mr Key said the sector
faced challenges that were "quite economic in nature".
He said some polytechnics were struggling financially and
highlighted issues around how the student loan policy works.
Mr Key later clarified that the interest free loan scheme
would be retained.
"At the margins, at the boundaries, there are specific issues
where, as I understand it, the universities and the student
associations have been having some discussions. But zero
percent loans remain."
Industry Training Federation executive director Jeremy
Baker agreed the country needed to improve the value it got
from tertiary education spending, and said ITOs could help.
“It is our long held belief that much can be done to better
match what
is funded in tertiary education with the skills that are
needed by
industry,” Mr Baker said.
“Under the current system there is no process to ensure that
funding
committed to tertiary education is targeted to the areas
where there is
a clear skill demand. ITOs have developed approaches that
would ensure
that money invested in tertiary education was towards courses
and
qualifications our workforce needed.
“ITOs are also keen to work with government to provide
better
connections between schools, tertiary education and the
workplace. We
can provide clear vocational education and training pathways
linked to
qualifications that have real value
More than 35,000 businesses and more than 180,000 apprentices
and
trainees are involved in industry training every year.
