Hon Steven Joyce
Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills & Employment

20 December 2012

Tertiary sector performance improves

Tertiary education institutions have continued the trend of year-on-year improvements to their educational, organisational and financial performance, Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce says.

The 2011 Tertiary Education Performance Report released today by the TEC reviews each tertiary institution’s performance in the 2011 year as well as how the sector is tracking to achieve the Government’s priorities for tertiary education.

“I am pleased to see that tertiary education institutions are responding well to the Government’s priorities, with improved course and qualification completion rates across the board, particularly for young people and Maori and Pasifika students,” Mr Joyce says.

“The Government is continuing to get greater value-for-money from the $2.68 billion we are investing into tertiary education providers. Between 2008 and 2011 the course completion rates have increased from 76 per cent to 82 per cent and qualification completion rates from 64 per cent to 71 per cent.

"The investment is also being directed to higher value tertiary education rather than to short courses, resulting in more people gaining qualifications, especially at degree level and higher.”

As well as improvements in educational performance, tertiary education providers improved their balance sheets in 2011 and are in a better financial position.

“Organisational capability has also continued to improve, and I have been impressed by the more innovative ways tertiary education providers are supporting students,” Mr Joyce says.

“This is evident in the Youth Guarantee scheme which continues to go from strength to strength with increasing Maori and Pasifika participation and improving qualification completion rates.

"There remains more work to do, particularly around increasing responsiveness to the skill needs of industry, and in further developing the international education sector.

“I look forward to seeing the 2012 performance for the sector, and achieving further progress, in 2013.”

The report is available at: http://www.tec.govt.nz/Tertiary-Sector/Performance-information/

ENDS

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