ITENZ Welcomes New Minister’s Focus But is Cautious

ITENZ Welcomes New Education Minister’s Focus But is Cautious

Independent Tertiary Education New Zealand (“ITENZ”) welcomes the fresh perspective and ideas the new government will bring to the tertiary education sector. ITENZ has provided a briefing to the incoming Minister of Education, Hon Chris Hipkins as well as to the Associates Minister of Education and Minister of Immigration.

ITENZ Chair, Christine Clark said “ITENZ members provide diverse choice to students of all ages, ethnicities, genders and education backgrounds. From foundation level courses to degrees and post-graduate level programmes, from delivering valuable training in age care, educating to prevent child abuse to hairdressing, ITENZ members play are a crucial part of the tertiary education sector.”

In its briefing, ITENZ has commented on Hon Chris Hipkins’ recent suggestion at the ITENZ annual conference in September that NZQA and TEC should be merged. ITENZ proposes that the Minister action this suggestion in order to streamline the tertiary education regulatory system.

ITENZ has also proposed the creation of an Education Ombudsman role in order to facilitate independent appeals of processes and actions in the tertiary education sector.

Ms Clark said “This long-called for role of Education Ombudsman will benefit students, providers and employees throughout the whole education sector.”

ITENZ remains cautious but concerned about the Labour-led Government’s policy to reduce immigration levels through the reduction of international students.

“New Zealand is known world-wide for its vocational expertise, ITENZ hosted the World Vocational Education and Training conference in Queenstown this year. New Zealand, particularly PTEs are great at delivering these sorts of programmes, we just have to be careful that we do not lose this significant training” said Ms Clark.

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