Executive Summary

New Zealand's Annual Tertiary Education Enrolments is the first of six reports to be published in the Profile & Trends 2015 series.

The Profile & Trends reports to be published in 2016 will contain data on tertiary education trends and changes for the year ended December 2015, unless otherwise stated. The order of publication of the other five reports and the topic covered in each report is expected to be:

• New Zealand's Workplace-based Learners
• Tertiary Education Outcomes and Qualification Completions
• New Zealand's Tertiary Education Research
• Tertiary Education Sector and Student Support
• New Zealand's Tertiary Education System

Most of the statistics in New Zealand's Annual Tertiary Education Enrolments are derived from returns provided by government-funded tertiary education providers to the Ministry of Education and to the Tertiary Education Commission. A list of figures and tables is included at the end of the report.

The report begins with an overview of the students in tertiary education (chapter 1), followed by profiles of students in formal study at providers, and their courses of study. Chapter 2 covers students in level 1 to 3 qualifications, chapter 3 covers students in level 4 to 7 non-degree qualifications, and chapter 4 covers students in bachelors and postgraduate qualifications. Data on study loads, provider type, age, gender and ethnic group is also included throughout the report. The focus of chapter 5 is on non-formal tertiary education. Non-formal tertiary education is study that does not contribute to a recognised qualification.

This year's Profile & Trends series represents the 18th annual survey of the tertiary education system to be published by the Ministry of Education.