3 August 2006
Freeze on new Short Awards to be lifted
The current moratorium on the approval of new short courses* is to be lifted from 1 August 2006 the Tertiary Education
Commission announced today.
A moratorium was placed on new Short Awards in July last year while the TEC investigated how these qualifications should
be funded in order to meet industry and government objectives.
“Following consultation with the sector and government agencies, it become clear that options for the long-term future
funding of Short Awards needed to be considered within the wider reform process,” TEC Policy and Advice Acting Group
Manager James Turner says.
“Because this work has now been incorporated into the wider tertiary sector reforms it was decided to lift the freeze on
new short course qualifications. The funding cap will remain in place, however, until the next steps in the tertiary
education reforms are finalised.”
The $22.7m a year cap was placed on Short Awards last July to limit growth while decisions about future funding
arrangements were made. In order to manage this cap, public policy and first aid Short Awards no longer attract
government funding as they were identified as areas more appropriately funded privately (as had been the case until a
few years ago).
All new Short Award qualifications will be required to go through an approval process to ensure they meet quality
standards as well as industry and government priorities.
Further work by the TEC on Short Awards will include issues such as what type of provision should be publicly funded,
which government budgets should subsidise certain types of awards, who should pay for those courses, or parts of those
courses that are unsubsidised.,
* Short Course or awards are worth less than 40 credits on the National Qualifications Framework or equate to
approximately one third of and Equivalent Full Time Student (EFTS)
ENDS