• View
• Edit
• History
• Print

Issue Five September 2008

 

Home Page

This month’s edition brings you information on the latest published results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, an OECD international review of tertiary education, a symposium on measuring research performance and Statistics New Zealand completes final release of its local area unit population projections.

ALL results for age, gender and ethnicity

Two further reports on the initial results from the Adult Literacy and Life-Skills Survey have been released. These complete the series of four initial reports. One of the new reports looks at New Zealanders’ skills in relation to gender and ethnicity and the other in relation to age. Both reports include information on changes since 1996.

These reports can be accessed on the Education Counts website.

Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society

Tertiary education policy is increasingly important on national agendas. The widespread recognition that tertiary education is a major driver of economic competitiveness in an increasingly knowledge-driven global economy has made high quality tertiary education more important than ever. The imperative for countries is to raise higher-level employment skills, to sustain a globally competitive research base and to improve knowledge dissemination to the benefit of society.

Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society provides a thorough international investigation of tertiary education policy across its many facets – governance, funding, quality assurance, equity, research and innovation, academic career, links to the labour market and internationalisation. The report presents:

• an analysis of the trends and developments in tertiary education;
• a synthesis of research-based evidence on the impact of tertiary-education policies;
• innovative and successful policies and practices that countries have implemented; and
• tertiary-education policy options.

The report draws on the results of a major OECD review of tertiary education policy –- the OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education — conducted over the 2004–08 period in collaboration with 24 countries around the world.

The report, and related background papers, can be accessed on the OECD website.

Measuring research performance

On 18 September, the Institute of Policy Studies hosted a symposium on measuring research performance. The symposium provided an opportunity to consider some of the wider options for assessing the research performance of New Zealand’s tertiary education organisations, including a greater reliance on metrics of various kinds. The aim was not to come up with a different model for assessing research quality in 2012. Rather, the purpose was to explore and critically assess the policy proposals under discussion elsewhere, and consider whether any of these (and related options) might be applicable in the New Zealand context and hence worthy of further analysis and debate, including possible implementation post-2012.

Presentations from the symposium are available on the IPS website.

Also available on their website is a recent lecture by Professor Gary Hawke on “Aligning education with our contemporary society and economy”. It is listed under their Spring Lecture Series.

Further area unit population projections released

Statistics New Zealand has released its final sets of 2006-base area unit population projections in Table Builder, including projections by five-year age group and sex, as part of the Making More Information Freely Available initiative. These area unit projections have been released progressively as they become available. Projections for all 1,870 area units in 73 territorial authorities are now available.

The following population projections for area units in 18 territorial authority (TA) areas were released in August and September: Auckland City, Manukau City, Papakura District, Waikato District, Rotorua District, Gisborne District, South Taranaki District, Wanganui District, Rangitikei District, Palmerston North City, Lower Hutt City, Wellington City, Tasman District, Buller District, Timaru District, Dunedin City, Southland District and Invercargill City.

For further information see the Statistics New Zealand website.

Home Page