Profile & Trends: What the tertiary education sector provides
The information presented here describes New Zealand’s tertiary education provision; industry training; adult and community education; adult literacy, language and numeracy education; tertiary educatin within secondary schools; the New Zealand Register of Quality Assured Qualifications; and research and knowledge creation and transfer.
For a short commentary on the 2009 developments in tertiary education provision read Chapter 3 as a PDF file. A short article on trends in the demand for tertiary education is also included in this chapter.
Author: Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis and Reporting, Ministry of EducationDate Published: November 2009
An overview
Tertiary education in New Zealand provides a wide range of learning, ranging from education in foundation skills to doctoral studies. The system embraces technical and vocational education and training, higher education, workplace training, adult and community education, and tertiary education within the senior secondary school.
While the system has evolved to meet the needs of New Zealand’s society and economy, New Zealand also provides learning opportunities to a significant number of tertiary students from other countries who come to this country as international students.
The New Zealand Register of Quality Assured Qualifications – often known as KiwiQuals – provides a standard structure for naming and describing qualifications across levels and types of provision. It describes what learners can expect from a qualification and it provides for a measure of portability across the system.
In addition, the tertiary sector contributes to the national innovation system through its research activities; more than 60 percent of all New Zealand’s published research papers come from the tertiary education sector.
Learning opportunities within the New Zealand tertiary education system can be categorised as formal (that is, contributing towards a recognised qualification) and non-formal (that is, not contributing to a recognised qualification). Both formal and non-formal learning can be further divided into situations where students are enrolled with an education provider and situations where students are learning through a relationship with an employer or community organisation.