So far, so boring, but the Bologna Burns site explains how demonstrations and blockades (all peaceful apparently) are being organised for the conference. It amazes me that such a fundamentally boring process can stir such passion.

“12. That the institution is failing, or is likely to fail, to achieve educational outcomes that are commensurate with the average sector performance in terms of meeting the needs of learners, employers and the communities it serves.” Source: Consultation Document - Two reviews of legislation for institutions at risk and the associated gazetted criteria. MOE and TEC. December 2009 (p.28) NB Not available online, but you can ask for it here.

So, under this criterion, every polytechnic that falls below the average is automatically at risk and may face interventions, including sacking of the Council. To be fair, I think they’ll probably fix it during editing!

Law courses often have a high enrolment in their first year (when law courses typically only make a part of the student’s courses) and then a savage cutback in year two. This will possibly lead to many students having unsuccessful course completion in year 1 (although many may pass) but will certainly lead to low qualification completion (half to two thirds of students may be gone at the end of year 1). The current approach is based on some or all of the following reasons.

1. School marks are not always the best predictor of success at university and are often irrelevant to older students’ performance, so making decisions after a year of university academic performance gives a better indicator of future success.
2. Students won’t have studied law before, so it makes sense to allow them to trial it.
3. Since students have to take non-law papers in Year 1 as well, they can easily continue in and complete another degree.
4. Letting only a few students through raises the prestige of law degrees and law lecturers (but so does having 3 applications for each place, so let’s not overstate this)

Now if a university wanted to improve its completion figures, it would look at law and find technical and real fixes to the issue. On the technical side, a university could simply refuse to accept law degree enrolments until Year 2, thereby avoiding the huge non-completion figures for that degree. On the real side, they could find a better way to manage entry into their degree and find the people likely to make the best of the opportunity.

And if start looking at real ways, we quickly find a value for money angle. If year 1 law courses are rated at 0.33 EFTS, then subsidies will be about $1700 and student fees about $1,300 for a total of $3,000 (exc GST), If, say, 800 students enrol in year 1, but only 300 go on to year 2, the cost of the trial for the 500 that don’t go on is $1.5m. Now if we put $1.5m on the table each year, I think we could come up with a better way to test people’s aptitude and interest for a law degree, and maybe people could study something else in Year 1 that might have more long-term relevance for them. And that will be the real impact of Joyce’s performance funding – sure, a few courses will lose funding, but it’s the wider questioning of current practice that will generate the main results. Whether law degree enrolment practices change or not, reporting on and looking at completions will affect how tertiary education operates.

(And if you’d rather not look at law courses, Danyl at the Dim-Post has sparked comments on the broader issues.)

The Speech

Joyce’s speech gives a clear sense of where he is coming from and how he will operate – that’s important because it his first formal statement on tertiary education. There are also some comments on linking student loans to academic progress, repeating earlier views. You should read it, but some of his final words provide a good example of his thoughts.

I don’t see radical change on the cards.  What we need is a continued evolution to a more effective and efficient tertiary system that makes the very best use of the $4 billion we taxpayers contribute to it.

The Announcements

The funding announcement doesn’t really amount to much. Performance from this year on will be linked to funding from 2012 onwards. The things being measured are likely to be qualification completion, successful course completion and student progression to further study. To me though, he has hedged things – poor performers will “run the risk of losing funding”, or will not be funded “at the same level” and the amount at risk will “be low to start with so everyone has time to adjust”.

The performance funding policy could be very significant, but only if it is firm and simple. Grant Hodgson and Jim Doyle discussed this in comments last Friday, pointing out that the more complicated the system, the more it comes down to how good you are at interpreting the rules. We can quickly get mired in how everything is complicated and unique, whereas Joyce’s starting point is value for money. I hope he keeps the focus simple as the sector and officials attempt to complicate it.

On qualifications, Joyce mainly restated announcements that NZQA made in December, but now seem to have been approved by Cabinet. He did name a start date for the NZ Qualifications Framework – July 2010.

At a time when newspapers are slashing their staffs and squeezing out education coverage, it is more difficult for colleges to communicate their relevance and messages to the public. Many are tapping the expertise of out-of-work journalists as they navigate a media landscape that is increasingly moving online.

But the void those reporters leave in shrinking newsrooms has raised questions about whether colleges are being held accountable, and whether too many college news releases show up, almost verbatim, on newspapers’ Web sites.

Outside of the Otago Daily Times, I can’t think of anyone who focuses extensively on tertiary education reporting in our media (and the ODT has two people and ropes in students during Orientation!). Radio NZ has had a long-term specialist education reporter in Gael Woods, soon to be replaced by John Gerritsen, previously of Education Review. Other reporters are usually only in the role for a year or two or have a much wider round – although they’re still picking up on stories as I just had a call from one!

How good do you think media coverage of education is in NZ, especially of tertiary education? What impact do you think that has on the public understanding of tertiary education?

(BTW I want to be clear that I don’t see ED Blog as the epitome of journalism. This blog serves as a place to discuss issues within the sector, rather than the wider audience of the media.)

1. Rob Carr, Canterbury Uni VC, released the organisation’s annual report on NZX on Friday – yup, that’s the stock exchange. When UC raised debt last year, it did so thru a debt market subsidiary of NZX (NZDX) and must make regular reports as a result. The report is so new that it still isn’t up on the main UC site by Sunday (the NZDX version had no photos or pretty cover though). Cue outrage about privatisation of education! HT NBR. (I)
2. Heather Roy, ACT MP, has written a piece in her Diary on tertiary education reform. She has some enrolment numbers way off and an error about full cost fees for unfunded students, but largely she supports Joyce’s lines about linking student loans eligibility to academic performance and builds on the value for money arguments being made lately. It’s a strong reinforcement of Joyce’s messages and the more something gets repeated, the more likely it’s going to happen in Wellington.
3. Stuart McCutcheon, Auckland Uni VC, painted a bleak vision of our grandchildren being educated overseas (as opposed to our peers working there already…) if university funding was not kept up. He argued that a low cost system could easily become low quality too. Sharn Riggs, TEU National Secretary, has since said that McCutcheon should look to the government, not students, for extra money.
4. Palmerston North’s Student City brand is going to be handed over from a full-time co-ordinator to a marketing company and student volunteers/interns. I think it’s a great idea to bring in move voices, give students business experience and (I assume) stretch resources a bit further.
5. Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and University of Waikato students had a street parade in Tauranga to mark Orientation and it looked like they had a good time. Check out all the photos on flickr.
6. Applications are now open for the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative - get your application in by 12 May 2010. It’s all about enhancing the links between educational research and teaching practices to improve outcomes for learners. There have been ten post-school research projects published so far and I wonder how much effect they have had. In particular, I wonder whether research findings are getting out to practitioners. I have no answers either way, but might look into it later.
7. In terms of research, check out ITO Workplace Assessment Structures and Systems: Survey and Focus Group Findings. It’s the second in a series funded by Ako Aotearoa on ITO Workplace Assessment Structures. A quick skim of it shows a practical and useful approach.
8. NZSki won “Overall HR Initiative of the Year” at the 2009/2010 Human Resources Institute of NZ (HRINZ) awards held in Wellington the week before last. It’s an impressive story of a firm boosting employee engagement with learning, and developing partnerships with the relevant ITO (SkillsActive) plus Otago Polytechnic and Queenstown Resort College. They have increased staff involvement in seeking qualifications from 200 to 761.
9. Tysson Hema, a Modern Apprentice shearer, scored best quality points in the Golden Shears at the weekend.
10. Lynne Boddington, Lincoln University lecturer and TEU representative, died in a car crash on Friday.

Our first ED Insider item is our monthly agenda of what’s going on in tertiary education policy, industry and sector areas. We’ve analysed 22 policy processes, reports or other items (eg Minister Watch), stated our view on them and described the next steps and due dates. It should be a great reference tool for senior managers as it develops, allowing them to focus their effort.

The full website is a few weeks away, but we’re producing content now and seeking triallists. If you’d like to get a free sneak peek at the new service (including the agenda), while offering us some feedback in return, contact me. There are just two conditions.

1. You must be a senior manager in a university, ITP, wananga, ITO, large PTE, or national body of those TEOs. (This is our core market and we want to get it right for them first.)
2. Two or more senior managers must sign up from each organisation (We want you to be able to discuss the service’s value with a peer.)

We have six triallists already and are only seeking up to 20 triallists, so be in quick. If you’d rather have a chat first before signing up or just want to discuss things, call Dave Guerin on 021 404 334.