Labour’s tertiary strategy has failed

A Government report on tertiary education shows that five years of talking and millions of dollars in bureaucracy costs have been wasted on trying to change tertiary education.

“When parents of school children are selling raffle tickets to employ teachers, this waste of hundreds of millions of dollars is a scandal,” Mr English says.

“Five years ago, Steve Maharey said he would line up tertiary education with the Government’s priorities. He has – political correctness and wasted taxpayer money.

“Self-esteem courses, dodgy computer training and low-level cultural courses account for most of the increase in student numbers and spending.

“This year has been a rolling scandal of revelations about expensive courses on radio and CDs, thousands of enrolled students failing to complete courses, and a blow-out in spending on low-value courses like twilight golf and coffee-making.

“The report shows that only 43% of students who started a bachelor’s degree in 1999 finished it by the end of 2003.

“The Tertiary Education Commission, costing $47 million per year, was meant to increase the proportion of students completing their courses, and again they have failed,” Mr English says.

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