Government misguided to base funding on employment outcomes

Government misguided to base funding on employment outcomes

“QPEC, the Quality Public Education Coalition, is alarmed at proposals to tie tertiary education funding to "employment outcomes," says QPEC tertiary education spokesperson Dr David Cooke.

Ministry briefings, the Ministry of Education, the TEC and Treasury recommend a change in funding "away from student numbers and qualification levels to outcomes."

Minister of Tertiary Education Steven Joyce today commented favourably on this suggestion.

“Tertiary institutions contribute significantly and consistently to employment and work, but it is not their function to provide employment,” says Dr Cooke. “Their role is to deliver first-class, leading edge education. This they do. But as thousands of job applicants in NZ can testify, getting a job is uncertain and capricious.”

“While tertiaries regularly and actively help and support job-seekers, the employment market is constantly forbidding and dependent on factors well outside the control of universities, polytechnics and potential workers. In any given year, there could be few opportunities in certain categories of jobs, while in later years the position might change for the better.”
“As a nation, we should be mature enough to recognise that tertiary institutions contribute to the country's wealth and richness in many ways in addition to preparing people for jobs.”

“It would be totally misguided to base funding on employment outcomes.”

ends

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