The Minister of Education has published three new research reports. I have a soft spot for the MOE’s Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis and Reporting team and I regret that there is not a bigger market for research-based evidence in tertiary education policymaking. To help make up for that, I’ll promote their work!

1. Comparing university tuition fees with PBRF performance,by Warren Smart, shows that bachelors degree tuition fees and research quality are positively linked, but only weakly (0.09 regression factor). This is no great surprise, as universities generally kept fees at similar levels in the 90s (Victoria and Otago had them a bit lower) and fee increases have been heavily constrained in the period since the PBRF started to measure research quality. This is one for the policy diehards only, but it is good to see research published that just tests a hypothesis without startling results – too often this stuff gets hidden, but it all helps outr understanding.
2. Training Opportunities: Exploring what happens two months later, by Paul Mahoney,shows that the most important factors in gaining positive outcomes (employment, further education and training) are credits achieved per week, region, employment history and course field – gender had a very small impact. There are some ‘obvious’ findings, such as those that achieve credits and have been in long-term employment previously are more likely to get a job. But some fo the detail is quite interesting, such as what outcomes are more likely for different course fields. I think this research is very relevant to both policy-making and TEC contracting decisions – it may help target successful providers, but also identify what groups Training Opportunities work best (and worst) for. This is a great example of how research can support programme improvement and it would be great to see a TEC response on reports like this, even a few months down the track.
3. Tertiary education, skills and productivity, by David Earle, is an update of a 2007 article. In summary, tertiary education matters, but only if you use it right – this issue is dear to ED’s heart (see the sidebar). The paper is well worth reading as an overview of the topic.