Dr Stuart Middleton, Executive Director of Student Affairs at MIT (Manukau Institute of Technology), New Zealand’s largest polytechnic, looks at how the country is recovering from a hangover of educational competitiveness and access initiatives  

Turning round the Super Tankers

Stuart Middleton

 Having tasted the titillating and tantalising tipple of the free market drunk from fine crystal for over a decade, the tertiary sector in New Zealand is finding the drift back to the mug of cocoa-collaboration and co-operation difficult to manage. Once the hangover from that binge clears, institutions might see more clearly and with relief that cooperative planning must replace competitive bidding.

The 1990’s in New Zealand were characterised by reforms in education that opened the tertiary sector to competition both within its ranks – institution pitted against institution – and from outside with the spectacular growth of a huge numbers of private providers of tertiary education.

In a tertiary education system that had seven universities, six colleges of education (teachers colleges) and 22 polytechnics, New Zealand saw this modest number of 35 mushroom into nearly 1000 private providers. Where did the students come from?

Well, that inconvenience was overcome by creating a new clientele for tertiary education underneath the conventional levels from which tertiary institutions recruited students. In short, “tertiary” was redefined downwards as far as the level of about second or third year secondary schooling.

Of course there were plenty of potential students there bec ause New Zealand’s high-quality / low-equity education system had, over the preceding 50 years or so, produced huge numbers of people who had no or low qualifications and the lowest levels of participation in tertiary education in the OECD.

“Access” and “participation” were the rallying cries of successive governments, which resulted in a supply-driven system – get the bums on the seats and the providers got the money.

But the growth was at the lowest levels of the tertiary system and growth areas were distorted by institutions and providers spotting opportunities for quick profits that led to quite a drift away from the needs of the economy and the community. In short, New Zealand got more people into tertiary education and managed to increase the quantum of qualifications but at the same time produced the greatest skills shortage the country has ever known.

This will sound familiar to those in Britain and Australia, and the USA and Canada, and…oh yes, we are copycats in this.

Education marketing contributed to the drift. Instead of the emphasis on making choices based on personal interests and aptitudes, and on opportunities and futures, potential students were invited to respond to the brand. “The best dressed people are wearing Acme Universities colours this year!” It became a case of never mind the quality, feel the warmth: as education became marketed as if it were lingerie.

Well, it had to come to an end some time. And the present government is now attempting to restore some order into the system. A Tertiary Education Commission has been established and grapples with the issues but it is not easy. They have a number of steering mechanisms that are intended to get a more rational system:

1) The Performance Based Research Fund

This has seen all researchers graded and research funding, once allocated on the basis of student rolls, is now allocated on the level of the research actually produced. Old habits die hard. Within days of the first grading exercise being completed the advertisements flowed – “We are the best!” “One of New Zealand’s Top Universities!” and so on.

2) The Development of Charters and Profiles.

These were intended to allow the government to detect differences between institutions and providers and to reflect this in funding - all the charters and profiles were produced and agreed and the funding flowed exactly as it would have without it.

3) The Assessment of Strategic Relevance.

This was an attempt to see some order restored to tertiary provision in the small country. But if an institution from Wellington establishes the importance of having a campus in Auckland (800 kilometres to the North) there is no current way (or willingness) to stop it. 17 tertiary institutions throughout New Zealand have a presence in Auckland largely to allow them to ride out of town with their saddlebags full of cash.

Even if the steering mechanisms worked, the results would be slow in coming and even slower to produce change. Tertiary educational institutions are like super-tankers when it comes to a nimble and quick response. Governments continue to think they will respond like a go-kart.

So we are making changes in New Zealand slowly.

Meanwhile the cocoa is getting cold.

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