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Issue One May 2008

 

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This first issue of the Tertiary Analysis Newsletter brings you information on new reports on factors associated with higher research quality, 2007 enrolments, monitoring the Tertiary Education Strategy and school to tertiary transitions.

Research par excellence — factors associated with higher research quality

Today, the Ministry released a statistical analysis of the demographic and employment-related factors that are associated with higher research quality in the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) quality evaluation. This report, prepared by Warren Smart, uses the 2006 PBRF quality assessment data to update Warren’s 2005 report that did the same sort of analysis of the 2003 PBRF assessment scores. The report concludes that the quality of research produced by staff is closely aligned with their seniority in the tertiary education sector, with staff of higher academic rank achieving higher research quality.

The report can be found at: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/23752

2007 Enrolments

The Ministry recently released a summary of the 2007 tertiary education enrolments – giving information on where students are studying, what qualifications they are taking and details of the changing nature of the student body. This report shows that, while formal tertiary education enrolments fell slightly between 2006 and 2007, more young New Zealanders – those aged 18 to 24 years – studied bachelors degrees and postgraduate certificates and diplomas in 2007.

Check this release out at: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/22540

2007 enrolment statistics are available now at: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/tertiary_education/participation

Monitoring the Tertiary Education Strategy 2007/12

The Ministry recently released a framework for the monitoring of the new Tertiary Education Strategy. This framework – developed with the participation of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and others – will provide the basis for the annual monitoring reports that will attempt to record progress against the goals of the strategy. Monitoring will provide ongoing, timely information to help make sense of the extent to which the intended changes are happening and to what degree. The framework document provides background on what will be monitored and how.

The framework can be found at: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2563/20337

Advanced trade, technical and professional qualifications – identifying demand

One of the key areas of focus for our monitoring of the strategy is the third priority: Increasing the achievement of advanced trade, technical and professional qualifications to meet regional and national industry needs. In this report – the first of a planned series – David Earle explores a variety of information sources to identify where there is unmet demand for advanced qualifications. David’s report shows that demand for people in the workplace with advanced skills is increasing. Having more people with advanced qualifications is one part of the solution. This report finds that the areas of study where there is high unmet demand for advanced qualifications include information technology, engineering, building and health.

The report can be found at: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/23422

Secondary/tertiary transitions - two new Ministry of Education reports released

The Ministry and NZQA have established a programme that aims to build the body of evidence around youth transitions. One of the important moves as part of this project was to link unit record data on participation and achievement from the Ministry, the TEC and NZQA. This project has led to a range of new insights.

A new report by Scott Ussher: Post-school choices, how well does academic achievement predict the tertiary education choices of school leavers? examines the association between academic achievement at secondary school and participation in the various types of tertiary education.

A second new report by David Scott: How does achievement at school affect achievement in tertiary education? explores the relationship between academic achievement at secondary school and first-year achievement in tertiary education.

Both studies model the effect of school achievement under NCEA in relation to a number of other study and demographic related factors, and provide new insights on the degree to which school achievement affects post-school participation and achievement. David shows that the mean first-year course pass rate for the group of NCEA school leavers enrolling in degrees can be determined almost entirely from their NQF achievement. Scott’s report finds that, while academic achievement was a strong predictor of post-school choice, it had a stronger association with participation in bachelors-level study than other post-school choices.

These two works complement a recent report by Marian Loader: Students’ transition between school and tertiary education as well as three earlier transitions reports by Scott Ussher. We also expect to put out three shorter factsheets from the transitions project within three weeks.

These reports can be found at:

Postschool choices: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/23103

Achievement at school: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/23110

Students’s transitions: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/20918

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