Education Counts

Page navigation links

  • Education Counts Logo
  • Skip to Primary Navigation Menu
  • Skip to Secondary Navigation Menu
  • Skip to search
  • Skip to content

Site Search

Site Search

Site navigation menus

  • Know your Region
  • Communities of Learning
  • Find your nearest school
  • Early Learning Services
  • Directories
  • Publications
  • Indicators
  • Statistics
  • Topics
  • Data Services

Search the education counts website

Find pages with

Narrow results by:

Doing a bachelors degree Publications

Publication Details

This paper looks at differences in the performance of young people who leave school and progress on to bachelors degree study. It compares the performance of students with different levels of school achievement. It also compares the performance of young degree students at polytechnics and universities. We use qualification completion rates and first-year course completion rates as the measures of performance in tertiary study. We look only at young students studying on a full-time basis, and we take account of the achievement of the students in secondary school.

Author(s): Ralf Engler and Roger Smyth, Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis and Reporting, Ministry of Education.

Date Published: June 2011

Summary

Comparing university entrance and NCEA levels

For students who progress onto degree-level study after leaving school, those with higher school achievement, on average, do better in their tertiary studies. For students who meet the university entrance requirement, those who achieve NCEA level 3 do better than those who do not gain NCEA level 3. And while those who don’t meet the university entrance requirement tend not to perform as well as those who do, it is the achievement of NCEA level 3, over level 2, that is associated with the greatest improvement in performance.

Bachelors degrees offered at polytechnics and universities have different orientations. The distribution of students across fields of study is also different. So are the demographic and study characteristics of students at the two institution types—polytechnic students are older and more likely to be part-time.

If we just focus on young, full-time students, the polytechnic students have lower prior school achievement—a proxy for the innate academic ability of the students.

But when we control for age, full-time status and the level of school achievement in NCEA, polytechnic degree students have slightly higher first-year pass rates than university students. And the five-year qualification completion rates of these students in the two institution types are similar.

However, this doesn’t suggest that polytechnics are actually doing a better job than universities—only that for the group of students we are interested in for this study, the polytechnic pass rate is better.

Navigation

  • All Tertiary Education

Downloads

  • Full Report (PDF, 223.1 KB)
  • Full Report (DOC, 198.0 KB)

Contact Us

For more information about the content on this webpage, please email the:  Tertiary Mailbox

Home Close Menu
  • Know your Region Show submenu
  • Communities of Learning Show submenu
  • Find your nearest school Show submenu
  • Early Learning Services Show submenu
  • Directories Show submenu
  • Publications Show submenu
    • Early Childhood EducationShow submenu
      • Responding to diverse cultures: Good practice in home-based early childhood servicesShow submenu
    • MāoriShow submenu
    • SchoolingShow submenu
    • PacificShow submenu
    • Tertiary EducationShow submenu
    • Learning SupportShow submenu
      • Learning Support Coordinators Evaluation: Phase 2Show submenu
    • InternationalShow submenu
    • Publication SeriesShow submenu
  • Indicators Show submenu
  • Statistics Show submenu
    • Annual Monitoring Reading RecoveryShow submenu
    • Attainment of 18-year-oldsShow submenu
    • AttendanceShow submenu
    • Attendance under COVID-19Show submenu
    • Beyond StudyShow submenu
    • Early Learning ParticipationShow submenu
    • ECE FinancesShow submenu
    • ECE ServicesShow submenu
    • ECE StaffingShow submenu
    • Early Leaving ExemptionsShow submenu
    • Entering & leaving teachingShow submenu
    • Fees Free tertiary educationShow submenu
    • Financial Support for Tertiary StudentsShow submenu
    • Funding to SchoolsShow submenu
    • HomeschoolingShow submenu
    • Initial Teacher Education StatisticsShow submenu
    • International students in NZShow submenu
    • Language use in ECEShow submenu
    • Literacy & NumeracyShow submenu
    • Māori Language in SchoolingShow submenu
    • NZ's Workplace-based LearnersShow submenu
    • Number of SchoolsShow submenu
    • Ongoing Resourcing SchemeShow submenu
    • Pacific Language in SchoolingShow submenu
    • Per Student Funding for SchoolsShow submenu
    • Post-compulsory education & trainingShow submenu
    • School BoardsShow submenu
    • School Board RepresentationShow submenu
    • School Leaver DestinationsShow submenu
    • School Leaver's AttainmentShow submenu
    • School RollsShow submenu
    • School Subject EnrolmentShow submenu
    • Stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions & expulsionsShow submenu
    • Teacher NumbersShow submenu
      • 2020Show submenu
    • Teacher TurnoverShow submenu
    • Tertiary Financial PerformanceShow submenu
    • Tertiary ParticipationShow submenu
    • Tertiary Population DataShow submenu
    • Tertiary ResearchShow submenu
    • Tertiary ResourcingShow submenu
    • Tertiary Achievement & AttainmentShow submenu
    • Tertiary Summary TablesShow submenu
    • Total public expenditure on educationShow submenu
    • Transient StudentsShow submenu
    • Vocational Education & TrainingShow submenu
  • Topics Show submenu
  • Data Services Show submenu

Site information

  • Site map
  • Contact us
  • Feedback
  • About this site
  • Glossary
  • Accessibility
  • Copyright, Legal & Privacy
  • Links
  • © Education Counts 2022
  • Ministry of Education logo.
  • New Zealand Government logo.
Scroll to top of page