Course Completions – TEI Ratings (Waiariki, Raukawa and 16 PTEs at Rock Bottom)

September 8th 2010 at 11:35am, By Dave Guerin

TEC is releasing education performance data today and I’ve put together a table below of course completions for TEIs. The measurement is: all EFTS completed a course/all EFTS enrolled in a course, but only covering courses expected to end in the relevant year.

The universities fill the top 7 places in the table, with Massey in 10th (probably due to extramural courses). That’s unsurprising, given they have some entry limitations on courses and are dealing with a group that is probably the best academically prepared. Even so, well done to them. I don’t think we should worry too much about institutions above 70%, or even the differences in rankings between them. They’ll probably run some courses with very low completion rates that will need attention, but their average performance is OK. I’ll deal with issues after the table!

TEI Completions 8-9-10

The four TEIs with course completions below 60% owe the public an explanation, and especially Waiariki Institute of Technology at 50% and Te Wananga O Raukawa at 42%. It is simply unacceptable to enrol people that have a lower than 50% chance of completing your course. It is a waste of students’ time and the government’s money. To achieve those poor levels of completions, some or all of entry standards, teaching, assessment or pastoral care are stuffed. You might wonder why I have included UCOL and Tairawhiti as well – the reason is that that average will probably hide a large number of sub-50% completion rate courses. Just as I was about to publish this post, I received a media release from UCOL with some marketing bumph but also some thoughtful comments on their rankings – good on them. I’ll link to it when it goes online)

By the way 16/199 PTEs had course completions of under 50% , and another 12 had 50-59%. They range from Practical Education Institute at 49% down to Directions Appearance Technology Training at 0% (I suspect they’re no longer funded). They also need to explain that performance.

7 Responses to Course Completions – TEI Ratings (Waiariki, Raukawa and 16 PTEs at Rock Bottom)

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Dean Carroll

September 8th, 2010 at 12:21 pm

Also Dave take a look at the qualification completions data: esp PTEs. What will be most fun is looking at the most recent NZQA Audit Report and comparing and contrasting. I sense quite a few OIAs. :)

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Dave Guerin

September 8th, 2010 at 12:23 pm

quals just went up :) But I haven’t done PTEs as I don’t have enough patience right now to do the data entry work!

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Dean Carroll

September 8th, 2010 at 1:20 pm

Well Dave

You might well describe it as simply unacceptable to enrol people with less than 50% chance of success on the basis of course completions. You might even claim (rather sensationally) that the PTEs are “rock bottom”, however you are not a quality assurance auditor currently employed by the premier quality assurance body in New Zealand statute (Education Act 1989 and it amendments refer).

I attach below the latest NZQA report on a PTE that in 2009 has according to TEC figures as a course completion of 49%. Please note timing issues (the NZQA review was done in May 2010 and submitted in July 2010). You will have already noted that the qualification completions rate for this provider is also less than 50% in 2009 (according to TEC) but has a 76% retention rate.

You will especially note the level of confidence that you as a New Zealand citizen (or prospective student) can have in this tertiary education organisation as expressed through your Government.

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/provider-reports/9383.pdf

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Dave Guerin

September 8th, 2010 at 1:30 pm

From p. 7 of that report “As the GINZ programme varies in duration
according to each student’s needs, completion rates alone are inappropriate as a measure of achievement. However, data indicates that approximately one-third of students complete the diploma qualification. …Student satisfaction levels are considered by GINZ as the best measure of student achievement. This is because students enrol in the certificate to find out what Gestalt psychotherapy is about and how it works.”

Hmm, maybe we could find a cheaper way for them to check out the subject that might not involve the taxpayer shelling out for the students’ courses?

Overall, though, I think it points to a disconnect (long known) between the TEC and NZQA systems. NZQA does not provide any stats but basically papers over what are poor completion rates by providing alternative explanations with little testing.

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Dean Carroll

September 8th, 2010 at 1:36 pm

No Dave

Really? What the ….

Well given that it is a legal stipulation that tertiary education organisations only enrol students with a reasonable chance of success, I suggest the Crown gets an opinion PDK (I suggest not in house: Minters or Crown Law will do) as to what constitutes “reasonable” and “success”.

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Dean Carroll

September 8th, 2010 at 2:08 pm

To be kind of fair to NZQA Dave I attach the Institute of Applied Learning EER from March this year, in which the Authority reports that it is “Not Yet Confident”

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/provider-reports/9352.pdf

They have correctly identified completion rates for domestic students as an issue to be addressed (not sure of timeframe). As this provider is in the ED Blog “Rock Bottom” category (as it should be on TEC’s 2009 figures for both course and qualification completions) it will be interesting to see what actions NZQA have done since March 2010 what they intend to do now that TEC has published this information.

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petrak vegas

August 30th, 2011 at 1:06 pm

I think that both you and Dean are missing the key points in regard to performance data:

1. the reported completed course measure is not (all EFTS completed a course/all EFTS enrolled in a course). I know that a number of PTEs report (all EFTS completed a course/all VALID students [EFTS] enrolled in a course). It is a fact that a number of PTEs enrol the student, take the money, the student disappears between 8 days and the next SDR, keep the fees. Valid students become those who are active at the next SDR. This can mean enrolled but unreported student numbers of up to 50%. These never become part of any statistic.

Unfortunately there is no reconciliation of student numbers and outcomes between studylink and NZQA and TEC. This means that a PTE showing 60% outcomes, with a 50% unreported enrolment rate is actually achieving 30% outcomes for the total cohort.

2. The definition of successful completion varies across PTEs. PTEs can develop their own successful completion definition. It may be 50% of a units in a skill set completed, or 100%.

Data is twisted and turned to ensure survival.

Dave is right in saying: “… that it is a legal stipulation that tertiary education organisations only enrol students with a reasonable chance of success…”

With there being a strong argument that it is impossible to predict success or not in a student the only way to ensure that this is followed would be to release fees unit by unit based on unit passed.

Petrak

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