Auditor-General's Report, Tertiary Education Sector: What We Saw In 2021

Our report Tertiary education sector: What we saw in 2021 was presented to the House of Representatives today. This report focuses on two key areas – the ongoing vocational education reform programme and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tertiary education sector.

The vocational education reforms are the most significant reforms in the tertiary education sector in 25 years. They provide an opportunity for better accountability and reporting of performance by the sector to the people and communities it serves. We acknowledge the complexity and scale of the work that’s been done so far to implement the reforms.

Creating Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology in April 2020 was central to the reforms. On that date, the 16 institutes of technology and polytechnics were disestablished and became Crown entity subsidiary companies. The Education and Training Act 2020 states that the subsidiary companies will continue in existence until they become fully integrated with Te Pūkenga, which will be on 31 December 2022 at the latest. Because of its central role in the reforms, Te Pūkenga needs to be clear about its operating model – that is, what it delivers, how it delivers it, and the assets, infrastructure, and capabilities it needs. Although progress has been made on this, much remains to be done.

Although disruptive and challenging, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to changes in the way tertiary education institutions deliver tertiary education. The pandemic has also brought the sector’s financial resilience into sharp focus. This will likely lead to new ways of operating that will help tertiary education institutions to be financially sustainable in the long term.

Given the many interdependencies the tertiary education sector has with other sectors, an integrated and strategic approach to the sector’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is needed. For example, labour market and immigration settings are directly relevant to tertiary education institutions’ operations. Therefore, any changes made to these settings can have significant impacts on the tertiary education sector.

A media kit is available for this report.

An epub and two-page summary are also available for this report.

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