TEC's View of Tertiary Sector Should be Broader

TEC's View of Tertiary Sector Should be Broader
Media Release 12 May 2004

“TEC should take a broader view of the tertiary sector, but today’s paper on the possible shape of the tertiary education sector is a good start. The paper suffers from overemphasis on the university sector and the boundaries between universities and other providers, but it does provide a good chance for everyone to put forward ideas”, said Dave Guerin, ITI executive director.

“Private training establishment (PTEs) are given the briefest of coverage, with a description of the sector and an excerpt from Budget documents – both from 2002. We hope to work with TEC and other stakeholders over the next couple of months to broaden and update their view of the role of PTEs, and what that means for the rest of the sector.”

ITI members offer courses from vocational education for welding and building to postgraduate studies in hotel management and art. They play a vital role in meeting the needs of industries and communities.

“While it can be difficult to define the varied PTE sector, it is important to put in the time. If PTEs are only to be funded where they are different to or better than public providers, then people need to understand what PTEs actually do.”

“ITI is also interested in the proposals to limit research postgraduate degrees to universities. While we agree that all providers of such degrees should meet quality standards, creating artificial barriers based upon provider type are unlikely to survive the test of time. A much better approach is to set quality-based standards and require people to exceed them. Any other approach is unlikely to survive the test of time, as educational history shows.”

ENDS

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