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This section provides information based on annual counts of completed qualifications.

Qualification completion counts provide indicative information on the extent to which patterns in enrolments do or do not carry through to completions. However, they need to be interpreted with caution as there are lag times of up to several years between enrolment and completion, depending on the nature of the qualification. Also, completion figures are for the full academic year, whereas the enrolment figures used in this report are snapshots as at 31 July each year.

Qualification completion counts by ethnicity, age and gender are not included in this section. It is difficult to interpret these breakdowns meaningfully as they are strongly affected by the choices of the groups in terms of level of study and length of course. Summary information on Māori and Pasifika completions is included in the relevant strategy sections.

The Ministry of Education has developed a longitudinal dataset that matches enrolments and completions. This data will be used in future monitoring reports to provide information on completion rates, retention rates and progression. This will include breakdowns by gender, ethnicity and age group.

Increased number of completed qualifications

The overall number of qualification completions has grown at a faster rate than the overall number of enrolments over the nine years to 2002. From 1994 to 2002, qualification completions grew by 44 percent, while enrolments grew by 30 percent.

Figure 22: Comparison of qualification completions with full year enrolments, 1994–2002

Strong increase in number of qualifications completed below degree level

When looking at the number of completions by level of study, it becomes obvious that the growth in completion numbers has been driven by increased completions of below degree-level qualifications. This matched increased enrolments at this level. From 2000 to 2002, completions of below degree-level qualifications increased by 38 percent, while degree completions increased by only four percent and postgraduate completions declined by two percent.

Figure 23: Qualification completions by level of study, 2000–2003

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• Table of Contents

• The Baseline Picture

• Cross Strategy Indicators

• Raise foundation skills

• Skills for our knowledge society

• Strengthen research and knowledge creation

• Te rautaki mātauranga Māori

• Pacific people’s development and success

• Capability and quality

• Technical and Data Definitions