‘Ghost’ students abandoned by tertiary system

Media Release
7 May 2009

‘Ghost’ students abandoned by tertiary system

“Tertiary institutions need to take more responsibility for students who fail to turn up to courses they have enrolled in”, said TEU president, Dr Tom Ryan. He was responding to a Ministry of Education report, released yesterday, which shows that New Zealand has one of the lowest higher education qualification completion rates in the OECD – significantly below Australia.

“Sadly, it’s a hangover form the old ‘bums on seats’ funding model, where institutions set up courses just to get students in the door, and then happily collected both their money and the government subsidy.” But some institutions now are unconcerned about those students who never turn up to class. “Staff call these students ‘ghosts’ because they simply never see them. In some first-year courses, ‘ghosts’ can comprise over 10% of total enrolments”, said Dr Ryan.

“Often it is only the course teachers and support staff who make an effort to track down these missing students. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some of them are not ready to pursue tertiary study, and give up without knowing they should cancel their enrolment. But also it appears that people are enrolling in tertiary study simply to get access to student loans. They seem unaware or unconcerned that such debt needs to be repaid.”

The Ministry of Education report attributes the high non-completion rate in New Zealand tertiary institutions to the relatively large number of part-time students, and to a significant number of students changing their programmes of study part way through to something different from what they had started.

“But this doesn’t paint the full picture,” argues Dr Ryan. “While those are important factors, the other issue to consider is the financial imperatives on our institutions to get students into courses, any courses. Students are missing out because they are not getting the institutional advice and support when they take up study – and when they disappear”.

ENDS

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