ED Blog is for people working in and around NZ tertiary education who care about policy, strategy and results.
In: Policy
17 Mar 2010Tony Ryall, State Services Minister, has just released data on the effects of capping the public service. From the end of 2008 to the end of 2009 staff dropped at the MOE by 46 (1.6%), at the TEC by 66 (18%) and at NZQA by 19 (4.3%). Overall public sector staff numbers dropped by 940 or 1.8%. The [...]
In: Research
17 Mar 2010New research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science demonstrates that physical risk taking by young men increases in the presence of an attractive female – who woulda thunk it? Luckily the researchers come from the University of Queensland, and aren’t funded by us. Here’s the abstract – apparently it’s something to do with testosterone…
HT Chronicle [...]
In: Funding| Government on Industry| Policy| Research| Strategy & Policy| Tertiary Staff
15 Mar 2010Joyce’s Briefings Steven Joyce released briefings given to him as the new Minister on Friday. There are nine papers for the curious. (I = ED Insider story)
Tertiary Education Reforms The Manawatu Standard has come out in support of performance-based funding for providers and for student loans. Martin Kay, political reporter, has written a lengthy piece [...]
In: Funding
13 Mar 2010One of the big issues in tertiary education last year was whether providers could enrol above their funding cap. Enrolment demand was high due to the recession, while there was slower growth in places than in previous years, so providers were open to getting more funded places (obviously) as well as enrolling unfunded students (mainly [...]
In: Policy| TEI Issues
12 Mar 2010I started a series on ITP Councils in early February but have been distracted from it over the last couple of weeks. so I thought I’d better write something about Ministerial appointees. (This is the sixth post in a series on ITP Council changes – the seventh will be on Joyce’s decisions and the last one [...]
In: Funding| ITOs| Industry Groups| Research| TEI Issues
12 Mar 2010Student Giveaway Waiariki Institute of Technology has given away a car as part of a promotion to encourage students to pay their fees early. Roberto Mura won the prize and is pictured with Waiariki CEO Pim Borren (on the right). I think this may be the biggest prize ever given out as part of a [...]
The Bologna Process is an EU initiative that is basically designed to align degree structures across the EU (and the wider world – NZ’s relationship is covered here). The EU is running a Ministerial Anniversary Conference in Vienna this week “to honour and to assess the achievements of common action and its contribution to enhancing [...]
In: TEI Issues
11 Mar 2010I was reading the proposed risk criteria for tertiary education institutions earlier this week and loved this item, which will probably just apply to polytechnics.
“12. That the institution is failing, or is likely to fail, to achieve educational outcomes that are commensurate with the average sector performance in terms of meeting the needs of learners, [...]
Lincoln University and Telford Rural Polytechnic are considering merging in 2011, according to an ODT story today. Telford spokespeople have referred to cuts in funding for short courses as a driver, along with the potential for lower running costs. The two institutions both operate in the primary sector but run complementary courses.
Tertiary reforms
Steven Joyce and [...]
In: Funding
10 Mar 2010…well, give them the hard word anyway. A Facebook discussion I had last night made me think more about the impact of Steven Joyce’s performance funding on universities. While we usually talk and think about non-university, sub-degree courses in relation to poor course or qualification completion, some university courses also have poor results, like law.
Law [...]
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