New Zealand Tertiary Education Summit

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e nga hāu e wha. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Thank you for your kind introduction, Dean (Carroll, Summit Chair).

Greetings to you all and, in particular, to our overseas guest, Norm Jagger, Project Director, Southbank Education & Training Precinct, Southbank Institute of Technology. 

I am delighted to be here today.

It is great to see such a high calibre of people here to discuss an area that is critical to the future of our country. 

We live in incredibly challenging times.  This John Key-led Government is acutely aware of how important better educational outcomes for our young people are to strengthening our economy.

Good quality tertiary education is of high national importance but of course there is also an important international dimension to this.  The questions we have to continually ask ourselves are, firstly, does our tertiary education sector produce the results we need for our economic well being, and secondly, how is our tertiary education sector regarded internationally.

That is why one of my first priorities has been to encourage much-needed improvements to tertiary education administration.  I am heartened by the steps the Tertiary Education Commission has taken in streamlining the administration of our tertiary education system.

Moves like these will help us to realise this Government’s vision of a tertiary education system that puts the needs of students and the economy first.  And it will ensure that we are getting optimum value for money for our tertiary education dollar.

We want to ensure that New Zealanders from all educational backgrounds have the right opportunities to gain world-class skills and knowledge. 

In order to achieve that, we must get the balance right between having certainty about overall levels of spending, while at the same time freeing up education providers to be able to come up with innovative initiatives and respond to economic and community needs. 

Universities, polytechnics, wānanga, industry training organisations, private training establishments and other tertiary education providers, all have a responsibility to provide the right skills and qualifications for us to make healthy strides in economic terms.

This Government, on the other hand, will do everything it can to create an environment that supports and encourages education providers to be flexible, dynamic and innovative.

High on our agenda is simplifying the funding system and lowering compliance costs.  We also want less central planning – in other words, the needs of students and the economy should drive the provision of tertiary education.

This Government sees its role as setting the right incentives for high performance in the sector and making available as much information as possible to enable students to make informed choices. 

We have embarked on an intensive effort to improve the quality of information we are collecting about publicly funded tertiary courses.  Having good quality information about completion and retention rates, for example, will be vital in making good strategic choices in tertiary education investments. 

We need meaningful and robust public reporting.  A current example is a comprehensive, aggregate report on tertiary sector performance that sets out full-year 2008 progress of publicly-funded tertiary education providers against quantitative performance indicators, which cover student enrolments, retention and completions.

This is quite a complex task that requires close co-operation between the Tertiary Education Commission, the Ministry of Education, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and tertiary education organisations. 

I am confident this task will be achieved and that we will be able to make such a report publicly available by the end of the year.

In a similar vein, we also require high quality research in vocational education if we want to ensure sound policy and decision-making.

The more we know about vocational training, the better.  Good research findings help us to be clearer on the best places to invest.   Research can help us gain better value for money and a greater understanding of what works and what doesn’t.  After all, when we make these important decisions, we want to know that they are based on sound evidence.

The overall investment in vocational training is huge and it’s not just the Government that provides funding for it – industry makes big investment in this type of training, not to mention the time and funding put in by trainees themselves.

So we all need to know what happens to this investment — what is it achieving and to what effect?

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to re-iterate that this Government regards our tertiary education system as a key national strategic asset, which plays a vital role in upskilling New Zealanders of all ages to help them meet the challenges of the 21st century. 

That is why it was particularly pleasing to see the sector respond so swiftly to the core workplace and employment issues coming out of Prime Minister John Key’s Job Summit in February. 

Several institutes of technology and polytechnics offered straight away to provide free or low-cost training to people who opt into the Government's nine-day fortnight programme.

Their offer means that workers on reduced hours in the nine-day fortnight scheme can potentially use time off to train - in everything from literacy and numeracy to computer skills or upskilling in the trades.

This Government is aware of the significant contribution tertiary education organisations make as we work on making our economy more robust.  I would also like to acknowledge that we are aware that there could be significant enrolment pressures on some tertiary education organisations this year. 

I know that the question on everyone’s lips will be whether there is going to be additional funding available to ease some of those enrolment pressures. I’m not going to talk about what’s in the Budget today, but what I can tell you that while we do appreciate the issue, right now is a time when our imperative has to be to constrain overall Government costs. 

So money will be tight – money is tight.  We have to look twice at every dollar we spend, and we have to work smarter to find ways of making what we do have go further.  We as a Government must do that and the Prime Minister John Key and Finance Minister Bill English are working on that.  He has already given a commitment to ensure this Government helps New Zealanders get through the worst effects of the recession.

The Finance Minister’s other priority is to set out a credible plan for economic recovery over the medium term. That means investing to increase New Zealand's productivity and growth, while at the same time getting the Government's finances in order.

But it is about much more than just money.  It is about joining up the dots and working together to achieve the best educational outcomes.  Never has it been more important to link up the various education sectors.  In fact, a sound education system at all levels is vital if we want our great country to be made up of people with a wide range of complementary skills that are designed to boost productivity.

Some initiatives we are undertaking in the secondary education sector will, therefore, impact directly on tertiary education.  Trades academies, for example, will engender more interest from our young people in vocational pathways and careers. 

They must deliver relevant education and create clear pathways to training and qualifications for young New Zealanders. The interface between secondary school, tertiary education and the workplace have never been more crucial.

Our Youth Guarantee will deliver a range of alternative educational pathways for 16 and 17 year olds in tertiary education.  For the Youth Guarantee, we will be looking for a wide geographical spread, good community support and high-performing tertiary education providers to give students the best outcomes.

While we are creating these vocational pathways for our younger learners, we also want to make it easier for students to reduce the inevitable debt burden that comes with tertiary education.  That is why we have been quick to introduce a ten percent voluntary repayment bonus on student loans.

This is a significant step to encourage student loan repayment and reduce overall repayment times. It will give student loan borrowers greater incentive to make voluntary repayments and help them repay loans faster.

Shorter repayment times will mean young New Zealanders will be debt free earlier. This means more money in their pockets each week and more freedom to make major life decisions such as travel, starting a family or home ownership.

The government’s voluntary bonding scheme will also make life easier for new teachers who will be eligible for a $3,500 annual payment (before tax) for every year up to five years, that they are working in hard-to-staff areas and teaching subjects where there have been teacher shortages.

Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, this Government is approaching the challenges of our time with some vigour.  We have rolled up our sleeves and have begun to make some serious changes in the education sector in support of our vision for a prosperous, highly skilled nation. 

There are many more things that we can and intend to do.  For now, we have made a head start with reshaping the tertiary education system towards a more responsive, flexible and innovative sector that can and does respond to changing economic circumstances. 

It is great to see that you have taken the important step of getting together for this Summit to discuss these issues. 

Thank you.