‘Value for money’ is the Ministry of Education’s closing phrase as it describes in its Annual Report the future focus for tertiary education.

For the ministry that means higher-quality qualifications, ensuring that students complete qualifications, and targeting increases in participation, retention and completion rates for Māori students, Pasifika students and students with special education needs.

It also means much more transparent performance information and “incentives for providers and students to make decisions that represent better value”.

Interestingly, the Ministry of Education’s annual report is able to list responsibility for exactly “eight universities, 20 polytechnics, three wānanga, 39 industry training organisations, 14 other tertiary education providers” but it is only able to estimate “around 750 private training establishments”.

It also states that approximately $2,867 million within Vote Education was spent on direct funding to tertiary providers rather than using the government’s preferred statement that it spends $4.1 billion on tertiary education.

According to the report ministry’s significant achievement in the last year was the development of the 2010-2015 Tertiary Education Strategy and subsequent changes to its policies to align with the strategy’s goals of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, performance related funding and responding to student demands.