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Ministerial Foreword

This Statement of Tertiary Education Priorities (STEP) is issued under the Education (Tertiary Reform) Amendment Act 2002, and is for the period 2003–04. It forms part of the government’s new approach to the tertiary education and training system. This new approach will ensure the development of a more strategic and coherent system, and is designed to ensure that the system meets the tests of excellence, relevance and access.

The changes that the new approach will generate are significant. They have been made on the basis of extensive consultation with the tertiary education and training sector, and with the wide range of stakeholders and communities it serves. As we continue implementing this new approach, partnership will be of the essence – partnerships between central government departments and agencies and Tertiary Education Organisations (public and private providers and Industry Training Organisations), and partnerships with our external stakeholders and communities.

In implementing these reforms, the government is balancing the need for change – and change there must be – with the need for certainty and predictability within the sector. New systems and processes are needed, but compliance costs for Tertiary Education Organisations (TEOs) will be kept to a minimum.

A Statement of Tertiary Education Priorities (STEP) will be issued by the government at least once every three years, pursuant to section 159AC of the Education Act 1989 as amended.

In essence, the STEP takes the Tertiary Education Strategy (TES) – which has a medium-term reach through to 2007 – and looks at the short-to-medium-term priorities for government departments and agencies, and TEOs. In the normal course of events the STEP will look forward for up to three years. This STEP focuses on implementation of the TES over the next 18 months.

This STEP signals the need for clear and measurable changes over the 2003–04 period. These will be supported by changes in the funding system and changes in government’s approach to tertiary education policy generally. This Statement is also an important expression of the government’s future expectations, once the new system is fully operational.

It is expected that, after notification in the New Zealand Gazette, a further STEP will be published in late 2004 to build on this STEP. The next Statement will be issued at a time that will enable it to support planning on the part of both government departments and agencies (which need to be consistent with the budget processes), and of TEOs.

Each STEP is underpinned by a number of key principles, including:

providing a transparent set of practical guidelines for the implementation of the TES;
balancing the government’s priorities with the autonomy of TEOs to interpret and apply the TES and the STEP differently depending on their distinctive roles, and the needs of their distinctive communities of interest;
awareness by government that no single TEO can implement all aspects of the TES alone, and that effective implementation requires a whole of government and collaborative approach between government departments and agencies,TEOs, agencies and external stakeholders;
working in partnership to achieve the objectives and priorities of the TES and the STEP; and
government providing clear and unambiguous priorities as a guide to planning by TEOs and government departments and agencies, while not inhibiting innovation and responsiveness.

The TES and this STEP provide the template for reforming New Zealand’s tertiary education and training system.

There have been requests in recent years for a statement of overall education priorities, covering the entire education system. We have provided this in Education Priorities for New Zealand, which provides a link between the earlier compulsory phases of New Zealanders’ education and the strategies set out in the Tertiary Education Strategy 2002- 07 and this STEP. Education Priorities for New Zealand is inclusive and draws together our existing strategies and programmes from across the entire education system to provide an overarching summary of what drives our work to improve educational outcomes for all New Zealanders. The Tertiary Education Strategy and this Statement of Tertiary Education Priorities remain the key documents for steering the tertiary education system.

The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) will lead this process of reform through instruments such as tertiary charters and profiles, and the integrated funding system. The TEC will assess each TEO’s contribution to the TES (the assessment of strategic relevance) when negotiating charters and profiles with TEOs to optimise excellence, relevance, access and capability development in our tertiary system.

While the government is expecting our tertiary education system to contribute much more explicitly to critical national development goals, this change in focus must not jeopardise the high participation levels of the last few years. Specifically, the government wishes to ‘steer’ the new system in a manner that improves the:

quality of teaching and learning;
quality of research; and
quality and strength of relationships, both within the tertiary system, and between

the tertiary system and other important sectors of New Zealand’s economy and society.

While the new system will not be fully implemented until 2005, government is expecting to see change building over this period, starting immediately. Indeed, as the changes have been widely consulted upon and signalled to the sector, some significant changes have already occurred.

Moreover, the reforms are being implemented in such a way as to ensure that there is not just continuity in the provision of education and training, but also significant increases in participation in areas such as workplace learning.

Given the challenge entailed in effecting change of this magnitude, the emphasis in this document is on the steps needed to keep up the momentum. Changes will be driven, above all, by the decisions and strategies adopted by TEOs. These will be reflected in their charters and profiles, which will be supported by their internal strategic and business plans and prepared in collaboration with their stakeholders and communities of interest. TEOs will need to invest in relationships with these external stakeholders to ensure that the reforms are effective.

The STEP is as much about identifying priorities for government departments and agencies as it is about ensuring that TEOs are clear on how they can maximise their contribution. While the STEP speaks primarily to the TEC and the Ministry of Education (MOE), it also indicates areas for other education Crown entities – New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and Career Services – to consider in their planning.

As the reforms of the tertiary education system are implemented, the government will ensure that the sector and its external stakeholders and communities are provided with a clear statement about what is important in the future. It will also provide a more certain and supportive policy climate to enable the desired changes to occur.

I emphasise that in implementing the reforms the government is committed to an approach predicated squarely on the principles and practice of partnership, and one that takes the best from what we presently have and applies that to the pursuit of excellence, relevance and access.

These reforms of the tertiary education and training system are about ensuring that our shared investment results in a sector that is empowered to make its contribution to the development of a knowledge economy and society, and our economic and social development as a nation.

In order to deliver this vision, one of the government’s key objectives in the TES is for TEOs to improve their strategic capacity and leadership at both governance and management levels. An independent review of the governance of tertiary education institutions (TEIs) undertaken by Professor Meredith Edwards has recently been released. Her report makes a number of suggestions for improvements in governance practice that will need to be addressed by both agencies and TEIs in the period covered by this STEP. While a number of these will require joint work or legislative change, many of her suggestions for good practice can be implemented by TEIs themselves. I commend the report to you and strongly encourage discussion and debate within the tertiary education sector on these issues.

Steve Maharey Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education)

STEP2 | Overview - The Tertiary Education Strategy 2002-07 →

STEP 2 Ministerial Foreword

Ministerial Foreword