NEW ZEALAND: Universities must do more with less

Universities have warned New Zealand's government that its plans for tertiary education may come unstuck because of a lack of funding.

Submissions to the government's draft Tertiary Education Strategy for the next five years closed recently. The draft called for higher course and qualification completion rates, particularly among people aged under 25, better financial performance by tertiary institutions and stronger research outcomes.

In their submissions to the draft strategy, universities said they supported its general direction but complained that the government was expecting them to do more with less. The New Zealand Vice-Chancellors Committee expressed concern the draft strategy suggested the government's current limits on funding would continue for several years.

"For the universities, this will be counter-productive to achieving the government's priorities - especially in the light of New Zealand's history of internationally low levels of investment in universities and inadequate indexation of funding," the submission said.

It said limited funding would affect government goals for increasing participation in higher level courses and improving achievement among Maori and Pasifika students.

"The priority is for more young people to gain degrees, but already demand for places at undergraduate and postgraduate levels has been boosted through the weak employment market... with no increase in per-student funding, student numbers will need to be restricted to maintain quality."

The committee also noted that more needed to be done with schools to achieve the goal of more degrees for under-25s as a significant barrier to participation was the preparation of young people for tertiary study. This was a particular issue for Maori and Pasifika students.

It welcomed the draft strategy's identification of research as a core role of universities but was wary of too much emphasis on "research of direct relevance to the needs of industry". It said universities were already at the forefront of commercialising research results but that this was not at the expense of the broader objectives of research.

john.gerritsen@uw-news.com

* John Gerritsen is editor of the New Zealand Education Review.