The Tertiary Education Commission's latest guidance warns that course and qualification completion rates need to improve. File photo. Photo:
The Tertiary Education Commission has indicated some tertiary institutions could face funding cuts next year.
The commission's annual guidance to institutions said they should not assume their funding would increase or even be maintained next year.
"Total funding available for Vote Tertiary Education will be limited and we will need to reprioritise our investment in a fiscally constrained environment. This will mean disinvesting from lower-performing and/or some non-priority provision to ensure funding is directed towards the government's priority areas.
"When planning for 2026, you should not assume your funding will be increased or maintained. We expect you to reprioritise your funding, where relevant, to respond to our priorities," the guidance said.
The guidance warned that course and qualification completion rates needed to improve.
"There is significant room for improvement, with most outcomes declining or continuing to plateau at current levels. For example, it is not acceptable that less than two-thirds of learners at Level 7-degree level (and even less for some groups) complete their qualification," it said.
The document said the government's higher education priorities included science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), health, and teacher education as well as qualifications for the food and fibre, and construction and infrastructure industries.
"Workforce demands span STEM disciplines including software engineering (eg, safety-critical software, signal processing, autonomous operations), avionics/electronic engineering (eg, remote sensing systems, communication systems, radar engineering), rocketry, and test and evaluation/quality assurance. Including space topics or courses in areas of existing educational strengths (eg, biotechnology) will also support maturing the domestic sector," it said.
A scientist told RNZ the STEM priorities were "bizarre" and looked like applied technology rather than science.
The guidance said the commission's key focus areas were "increased focus on investing in high performing and high priority provision to support economic growth"; improving educational outcomes, and "supporting the vocational education and training (VET) sector as it transitions towards a stronger regional focus".
Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said the guidance sent a clear signal, but universities were not sure how it would play out.
"What's on the plan guidance signals a direction, but it doesn't provide very clear rules. We know that there will be conversations, we don't know yet the detail of how those conversations are going to go," he said.
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