• View
• Edit
• History
• Print

No 4 October 2004

 

← No 5 November 2004 | eNewsletters | No 3 September 2004 →

1.  Is there greater access to foundation education?

One of the key focuses of the Tertiary Education Strategy is on raising foundation skills and competencies, so that people can participate in the knowledge society.

Foundation competencies are a set of skills, knowledge and dispositions in the areas of language, literacy and numeracy, that are essential to continued learning and active participation in society and family/whānau, as well as employment. Language includes te reo Māori, as well as English¹.

One aspect of the focus on foundation education is improving access, particularly for those who have not previously had access. This is balanced with ensuring quality of provision and developing professional practice.

For monitoring access, we have developed an indicator that focuses on formal courses at levels 1–4 of the NQF in the areas of mixed-field programmes, language and numeracy.

We have separated out te reo and tikanga Maori courses, so that the differing trends in this area can be seen more clearly.

See Key Shift 15 for the indicators.

Both sets of indicators (English-based and te reo Maori-based foundation education) show significant and steady growth since 2000, with much of the growth being in wānanga and polytechnics.

We are aware that these indicators are only a proxy for access. There is also provision outside of formal courses. Also, there needs to be more information added about retention and completion, to understand how much education people really are accessing. But it does give us a good idea of the growth of provision.

Other indicators will need to be developed to look at quality and professional practice.

back to top

2.  Understanding wider access to tertiary education

One of the change messages of the TES is increased responsiveness to the needs of, and wider access for, learners. This underpins the foundation education and skills strategies of the TES.

One of the indicators we have developed to look at this is the number of students aged over 25 enrolling for the first time in formal tertiary education.

This indicator shows a steady growth in these students since 2000. The majority enrol at certificate levels 1–3, but there has been recent growth at higher levels. Recent growth in enrolments has been in wānanga and polytechnics, with enrolments in ?PTEs falling off in the last two years.

See Success Criteria 20

back to top

3.  Question of the Month

Each month we feature a question for discussion. We encourage you to contribute your answer and have a look at what others have contributed.

back to top

4.  See what’s new and add your views

Maori Advisory Process

Notes from the hui in Auckland and Christchurch have been added to the site.

Presentation on the monitoring project

The presentation on the monitoring project given at the Christchurch Maori Advisory Process hui has also been added to the site. This presentation provides an overview and update of the project. It uses a uses a new wiki presentation template.

5.  Related information of interest

Statement of Tertiary Education Priorities: Discussion Document

A discussion document for the next Statement of Tertiary Education Priorities has been developed by the government and is based on analysis of the current state of the tertiary education system. It proposes where we need to focus in the short term in meeting our goals for tertiary education. The discussion document is arranged under three headings:

• Building skills and knowledge
• Working to national goals
• Enhancing capability and quality

Student Loan Scheme Annual Report to 30 June 2004

This report provides a comprehensive picture of the Scheme to date including:

• full audited financial accounts up to 30 June 2004.
• an overview of the government’s policy for student financial support.
• a description of the components of the Scheme and how they work.
• extensive statistics on the loan scheme including statistics on loan uptake, loan repayments, outstanding debt, borrowers overseas, long-term debt projections, interest write-offs and capital write-offs due to bankruptcy or death.
• a fair valuation of the scheme, developed by the actuaries working for the agencies that manage the scheme.

back to top

¹ See the Baseline Report, p 32, for a more detailed discussion of foundation competencies (↑)

Click here to subscribe or unsubscribe	For latest tertiary publications and statistics, visit:
Please direct any questions you have about this eNewsletter to David Earle (Ministry of Education)

eNewsletters:

• Current issue

Subscribe or unsubscribe