Our report Tertiary education institutions: 2021 audit results and what we saw in 2022 was presented to the House of Representatives this afternoon. This report looks at the main findings from our 2021 audits of tertiary education institutions (TEIs) and the progress of the vocational education reforms.

The total number of learners enrolled in tertiary and vocational education has increased since late 2020 due in part to the Government’s Covid-19 response initiatives. Although this increase continued in 2021, by August 2022 the total number of equivalent full-time students (EFTS) across all TEIs had decreased by almost 10% compared with the previous year. This will likely affect the financial performance of some TEIs in 2022 and in future years. Although TEIs might be able to absorb short-term revenue reductions, it is important that their medium- to long-term forecasts take account of further uncertainty and disruptions to the learning environment.

In our April 2022 report on the tertiary education sector, we noted concerns about the lack of progress Te Pūkenga had made on finalising its operating model, preparing a credible plan for financial sustainability, and developing a robust performance and accountability framework.

Te Pūkenga has now made decisions on its leadership structure, which is an important milestone. However, it still needs to do considerable work to complete its operating model and to finalise a plan for it to be financially sustainable. By now, we expected Te Pūkenga to be clear on the outcomes it was looking to achieve and by when. We also expected the measures it uses to assess progress against those outcomes to be in place and publicly reported on. This work is still incomplete, so it is difficult to objectively gauge what progress Te Pūkenga has made. The ability of Te Pūkenga to measure and report on its progress is essential to public trust and confidence in the organisation and the vocational education reforms.

The vocational education reforms are a significant transformation of the tertiary education sector. We acknowledge the work that has been done so far. However, there is still much to do, and it will require an ongoing focus from all public organisations involved.

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