Profile & Trends 2008: New Zealand's Tertiary Education Sector
This is edition 11 in an annual series on the tertiary education sector. Profile & Trends 2008 has three supporting booklets – The tertiary education system, What the sector provides and Finding out more about tertiary education. It also has an associated set of tables available on the Tertiary Education Statistics page here on Education Counts.
The short articles in Profile & Trends 2008 cover the following topics: Recent changes to higher education policy and funding in Australia and Scotland; Trends in the demand for tertiary education; Trends in fields of study of bachelors degree graduates; and New Zealand’s industry training data.
Author: Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis and Reporting, Ministry of EducationDate Published: November 2009
Skip to:
- An overview
- Enrolments in 2008
- Outcomes of tertiary education
- Workplace-based learning
- Level 1 to 3 provider-based qualifications
- Non-degree level 4 to 7 provider-based qualifications
- Bachelors and postgraduate qualifications
- Student support
- Research in the tertiary education sector
- Sector capability
- Investing in knowledge and skills
- The year 2008 in brief
- Short Articles
- Downloads
Investing in knowledge and skills
Government spending on tertiary education increased by 9.3 percent in the year ended June 2009. Total government spending on tertiary education, including operating costs and capital expenditure, was $5.0 billion in 2009, compared to $4.6 billion in 2008. As a percentage of gross domestic product, both total expenditure and operating expenditure increased in 2009. Total tertiary expenditure accounted for 2.8 percent of gross domestic product. The main difference between the operating and total expenditure was the amount of Student Loan Scheme lending that was treated as a capital expense.
The number of equivalent full-time student places funded by the Tertiary Education Commission increased in 2008. Government spending on tuition subsidies also increased as a result of the increased student places and increases in base funding rates.
The average domestic fee per equivalent full-time student increased by 6.8 percent at public tertiary education institutions. Part of this increase was due to a continued move away from enrolments in lowcost or zero-fee courses.
Figure 1.11: Government spending (June years) on tertiary education
Source: Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development, Inland Revenue and Tertiary Education Commission