ITI Articles

Dr Michael Cullen, Minister of Tertiary Education, released his “next steps in tertiary education” reforms in early April, but provided little detail. While the reforms are clearly aimed at addressing the shortcomings of the institute of technology and polytechnic (ITP) sector, it is unclear what the impact will be for the rest of tertiary education.

ITI is concerned, though, at the limited thought given to the private training establishment (PTE) sector in the Minister’s speech and the relevant Cabinet papers. There seems to have been no new analysis at all of the role of PTEs.

Over the last few years the government has been working on the assumption that PTEs do what public institutions don’t want to do, and that where PTEs and public institutions are “competing”, the PTE should no longer be funded. This is simply an ideological position, as there is no evidence that the policy will lead to any better outcomes – on the contrary, evidence suggests that reducing the contribution of PTEs will damage the tertiary education sector. 

This month, the Ministry of Education released some research by Waikato Institute of Technology staff on tertiary education providers' engagement with stakeholders. It showed that PTEs were more service oriented, flexible and accountable in relation to the needs of industry than ITPs or universities. Research released last year by Massey University academics showed that employers in Auckland felt that PTEs offered far more valuable and relevant provision than ITPs and universities.

Dave Guerin, ITI’s executive director, said “too often the government simply assumes that private institutions are inferior to those in the public sector, whereas the world is more complex than that. The research is stacking up for policy based on evidence of provider performance, rather than ideology about ownership type.”

ITI will be preparing a submission to the government and will profile it in the May 2006 newsletter.