tertiary education

The Government's cash injection to tertiary providers isn't a get-out-of jail-free card for struggling universities - but very welcome.

It's promising $128 million over the next two years to lift tuition subsidies an extra four percent, at degree-level and above.

The package follows both Otago and Victoria universities proposing job and subject cuts to plug funding holes.

Universities NZ Chief Executive Chris Whelan says the funds won't fix all their budget deficits and some roles will still have to go.

"It's a very useful contribution, it'll certainly get rid of some of the more extreme cuts."

A sector funding review will also take place.

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Universities across the country are facing funding shortfalls. But philanthropy is unlikely to help them make up the difference.

Fears slashing jobs at Victoria University jobs could force tertiary sector standards to slip.

The Wellington university is proposing to cut up to 260 jobs, in the face of a $33 million deficit.

Tertiary Education Union National President Julie Douglas, says the cuts are no good.

"What our focus is on is the quality output of good, well-educated graduates. And I think what we're risking here is the standard of our public education sector."

Otago University this year announced similar plans for large-scale redundancies and mega-polytech Te Pukenga also expects job losses.

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On January 1, Te Pūkenga will take over the country's 16 polytechnics and industry training organisations. Can a mega-merger bring the sector financial security?

Released in May 2019, the Augar report was a result of a 6 person panel chaired by Philip Augar and was the first in England to have a remit for the whole of tertiary education. Parry argues whether its features are the nature of expert panels. The use of expert panels to advise governments is a favoured form of policy inquiry process. In higher education, especially in the UK, they have replaced committees of inquiry in the tradition of Robbins and Dearing. In further education, there were no such independent inquiries in the first place. Although sitting inside a government-led review and observing its no-go areas, the six-person panel chaired by Philip Augar (which reported in May) was the first, at least in England, to have a remit for the whole of tertiary education. In assessing the system of higher and further education in England, and making recommendations about how it might be strengthened, the panel needed to assemble and generate evidence on a wide front. The scope of the task was worthy of a larger and longer inquiry. The result was a report short on policy history and lesson-drawing but with data and analysis marshalled in support of its core contentions. Most of its recommendations were financial and regulatory. None were structural. The present architecture of tertiary education was deemed fit for purpose. Here also was an inquiry process aligned to existing government policy for a two-type system of academic and technical education. That policy was the creation of another government-convened panel (chaired by David Sainsbury). Two of its members subsequently served on the Augar team. Such features, it will be argued, are of the nature of expert panels. The work they accomplish should be judged accordingly.

Drawing upon three large studies in Australian higher education, this presentation sets out a case for the kinds of curriculum practices, as well as a range of pedagogic practices that can be enacted prior to, during and after students’ work placements. Increasingly, tertiary education institutions are providing workplace experiences for their students to achieve goals associated with occupational preparation and work readiness. However, without considering how best these experiences might be organised, enacted and augmented the full benefits of these learning experiences may not be fully realised. Drawing upon three large studies in Australian higher education, this presentation sets out a case for the kinds of curriculum practices (i.e. intended, enacted and experienced), as well as a range of pedagogic practices that can be enacted prior to, during and after students’ work placements, and the kinds of personal practices of students likely to support the effective integration and reconciliation of experiences in both the workplace and educational setting as directed towards developing robust occupational knowledge.