16 November 2004
TEC records positive first full year
Significant progress was made by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) in the period covered by its first full annual
report, which has just been tabled in Parliament.
Acting Chair Kaye Turner said the report highlighted the TEC’s achievements in meeting the priorities set by Government
and demonstrated that the TEC had been successfully established as an organisation.
Nearly 120,000 people were involved in TEC-funded training programmes at June 30, 2004, and just over 250,000 equivalent
full time students were funded during the year.
The TEC met or exceeded its performance targets in Industry Training, Modern Apprenticeships, Training Opportunities
Programme (TOPS) and Support for Youth. Gateway continued its rollout to decile 1 - 5 schools with 2,795 placements
achieved in the calendar year 2003. This number has been exceeded in the first 6 months of 2004.
The TEC successfully introduced a number of new funding initiatives during the period including the Performance-Based
Research Fund (PBRF), which required the assessment of nearly 6000 evidence portfolios.
Two new strategic funds were established in the year – the Innovation Development Fund (IDF) and e-Capability
Development Fund (e-CDF), and the TEC supported the Regional Polytechnics Development Fund (RPDF) administered by New
Zealand Trade and Industry.
Individual strategies for working with Mäori and Pacific Peoples were developed during the period and a start made to
implementing them.
The TEC also achieved its desired outcomes in administering targeted scholarship funding and exceeded the target number
of Adult Community Education networks intended to formalise and strengthen relationships in this area.
ENDS