Comparing university tuition fees with PBRF performance

Results

The distribution of relative tuition fees (price) at the universities and relative quality are presented in Figure 3 and Figure 4 in the form of boxplots.⁷ In terms of relative price, it is clear that the relative tuition fees charged by the Universities of Auckland, Canterbury and Waikato along with Lincoln University were generally higher than the university average in the various subject areas. The relative quality of the universities shows that Auckland had the best relative performance while Auckland University of Technology (AUT) had the lowest.

Figure 3 Distribution of relative PBRF subject price by university 2003

Figure 4 Distribution of relative PBRF subject quality by university 2003

The 223 paired observations of relative price and quality for each of the PBRF subject areas at the universities are presented in Figure 5. This shows that 34.5 percent of observations were in the Higher price/Higher quality quadrant, 21.1 percent in the Higher price/Lower quality quadrant, 16.6 percent in the Lower price/Higher quality’ quadrant and 27.8 percent in the Lower price/Lower quality quadrant.⁸ The distribution of observations for each university is also presented in Table 1 in the Appendix at the end of this paper.

Figure 5 Relative quality and relative price for all universities

If students were reliant on tuition fees as a guide to quality, then the fees would have provided an accurate indication in the ‘Higher price/Higher quality’ and ‘Lower price/Lower quality’ quadrants. Just over 62 percent of subject areas were in these quadrants.

Regression analysis was used to generate a line of best fit – this is presented below:

Quality = - 0.42 + 1.42 × Price                 R² = 0.09

This indicates there was a positive linear association between relative price and quality of the PBRF subject areas at New Zealand universities, but the relationship is relatively weak. This can be assessed from the wide distribution of points in Figure 5 and the R² of 0.09. This means that just nine percent of the variation in relative quality was explained by the variation in relative price.

This suggests that factors other than research quality are reflected in the price of a university course. These other influences may include the cost of delivery or may reflect a pricing strategy at particular universities, such as keeping fees affordable for students.

It is likely that an analysis using current tuition fee levels and the more recent 2006 Quality Evaluation results could show an even weaker relationship between research quality and the cost of tertiary education for students because of the mixture of historical pricing strategies of universities with the impact of government fee regulation.

The results for each individual university are now presented. This can provide a clearer picture of how the relative price and quality of research at each university compare. The data for Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is presented in Figure 6. The majority of subjects at AUT are in the Lower price/Lower quality quadrant (62.5 percent), followed by the Higher price/Lower quality quadrant (37.5 percent). The lower relative research performance of AUT is not surprising considering its newly acquired university status (in 2000).

Figure 6 Comparing relative price and quality of PBRF subject areas for the Auckland University of Technology 2003

The results for Lincoln University are presented in Figure 7. The most populated quadrants are Lower price/Lower quality (33.3) percent and Higher Price/Lower quality (33.3 percent).

Figure 7 Comparing relative price and quality of PBRF subject areas for Lincoln University 2003

 

The results for Massey University are presented in Figure 8. The lower relative cost of tuition at Massey is clear, with just one of the observations in the Higher price quadrants. The vast majority of observations are in the Lower price/Lower quality quadrant (84.4 percent), followed by the Lower price/Higher quality quadrant (12.5 percent).

Figure 8 Comparing relative price and quality of PBRF subject areas for Massey University 2003

The data for the University of Auckland is presented in Figure 9. The strong relative performance of Auckland in the 2003 Quality Evaluation is clearly shown. What is also evident, is that the relative fees for Auckland are generally more expensive that the university average. The vast majority of observations for this university were in the Higher price/Higher quality quadrant (91.2 percent).

Figure 9 Comparing relative price and quality of PBRF subject areas for the University of Auckland 2003

The results for the University of Canterbury are presented in Figure 10. This shows that the majority of observations are populated in the Higher price/Higher quality quadrant (64.3 percent. There are also a number of observations in the Higher price/Lower quality quadrant (28.6 percent)

Figure 10 Comparing relative price and quality of PBRF subject areas for the University of Canterbury 2003

The data for the University of Otago is presented in Figure 11. As was seen in Figure 1, the University of Otago charged lower tuition fees than other universities. The effect of this is that a significant proportion of subject areas are in the Lower price/Higher quality quadrant (44.1 percent). The next highest proportion of observations was in the Lower price/Lower quality quadrant (29.4 percent).

Figure 11 Comparing relative price and quality of PBRF subject areas for the University of Otago 2003

The data for the University of Waikato is presented in Figure 12. This shows that fees at Waikato are relatively more expensive than the university average. Figure 12 shows that the most populated quadrant is the Higher price/Lower quality quadrant (50 percent), followed by the Higher price/Higher quality quadrant (46.4 percent).

Figure 12 Comparing relative price and quality of PBRF subject areas for the University of Waikato 2003

The results for Victoria University of Wellington are presented in Figure 13. This shows that the most populated quadrant (like Otago’s) was the Lower price/Higher quality category (39.3 percent). The shift to lower fees in the late 1990s to improve affordability is obviously a key factor in this result. The next most populated quadrants are Higher price/Higher quality (21.4 percent) and Higher price/Lower quality (21.4 percent).

Figure 13 Comparing relative price and quality of PBRF subject areas for Victoria University of Wellington 2003

 

Footnotes