Guidance for Universities
In developing Plans for 2015-2017, the TEC expects universities to focus on:

provision that responds to stakeholder needs and contributes to achieving
the goals and priorities of the TES, with a focus on the development of
transferable skills in all graduates

accelerating progress towards parity of participation and achievement for
Māori and Pasifika learners

contributing to the Government’s goals for international education

research strategies and implementation plans that increase research
intensity and build more effective relationships with New Zealand firms to
support research-driven innovation and a highly skilled workforce

demonstrating the contribution of universities in improving social, economic,
and environmental outcomes for all New Zealanders
The 2015-2017 planning environment for universities
Through teaching, research, and knowledge exchange activities, universities have
made a significant contribution towards TES 2010-2015 goals and priorities.
Progress towards TES 2014-2019 goals requires universities to continue to focus on
improving social, economic, and environmental outcomes for New Zealand and
further strengthen their international reputation and linkages. It also requires
universities to focus on developing closer and more strategic relationships with the
broader community, including industry, as part of improving the overall outcomes for
individuals and society from their investment in tertiary education.
Overall, the university sector is high performing, as demonstrated by its educational
performance (measured by EPIs) and the excellent results achieved in the PBRF
Quality Evaluation 2012. The government has invested $186 million of additional
funding in the university sector since 2008, with recent increases to SAC and PBRF
funding flowing into 2015 and 2016 baseline funding levels.
As in the last two Plan rounds, university Plans should not assume funded volume
growth and should demonstrate how government funding will be used effectively and
efficiently. While the level of funding available to universities has grown in recent
years, the constrained financial situation brought about by the Global Financial Crisis
continues to affect the quantum of resources available. The Ministry of Education’s
enrolment forecasting suggests that, due to a combination of demographic and
economic factors, demand for university places will not be as high during the next
Plan period.
Within this context of less intense demand for places and constrained funding, the
TEC will seek to increase its investment in STEM, ICT, and taught and researchbased postgraduate provision at universities. We may also seek shifts in provision
that reduce duplication or help fill gaps on the network of provision. Universities’
Plans should explain how they will address areas of under-delivery, low-performing
provision, or poor strategic alignment.
The TEC expects each university to ensure that its proposed provision reflects a
distinctive strategic mission and role that builds on its areas of strength. At the same
time, universities are expected to take a more collaborative approach to ensuring
that the overall network of provision responds effectively to the needs of all
stakeholders. This means working more effectively with prospective learners and
their families and whānau, schools, communities, iwi other universities, and TEOs in
other subsectors to raise aspirations, strengthen pathways, and increase the pipeline
of university entrants, especially for Māori and Pasifika. It also means working
effectively with employers and industry to ensure the relevance of qualifications and
that all graduates have the right transferable skills to succeed in the workplace.
It is essential that universities continue raising the overall level of educational
performance through effective initiatives to ensure the learning environment enables
all learners to succeed. In this context, each university’s Plan is expected to outline
its response to the potential of information and communications technology to affect
traditional modes of educational delivery.
The continuing impact of the Canterbury earthquakes is expected to influence a
number of university Plans. We expect the strengthening of distinct areas of teaching
and research excellence to be at the heart of university responses to the challenges
presented by this on-going situation.
University investment priorities for 2013-2015
Provision that responds to stakeholder needs and contributes to achieving the
goals and priorities of the TES, with a focus on the development of
transferable skills in all graduates
Responsiveness is at the heart of the Plan system. The TEC expects Plans to
explain how each university has identified and engaged with its stakeholders, and
how the provision proposed in Plans responds to stakeholder needs.
Stakeholders include prospective and enrolled learners, Māori, iwi, Pasifika,
communities, employers, and industry. Stakeholder engagement is key to ensuring
the relevance of provision for these groups, and to giving the Government
confidence that its investment in the university sector will help achieve the TES goals
and priorities.
Responsiveness to stakeholders enhances the statutory role of universities and
provides an opportunity to ensure each institution has a distinctive mission and
delivery profile.
A specific focus for universities’ Plans is to outline how stakeholder needs are
reflected in the provision of career guidance and support for students and
programme delivery that supports the development of transferable skills for
graduates.
Plans also need to respond to recent funding and policy decisions, for example,
STEM provision, including the Government’s target for engineering graduates.
Accelerate progress towards parity of participation and achievement for Māori
and Pasifika learners
The TEC’s engagement over Plans will focus on each university’s contribution to the
target of achieving parity of participation and achievement for Māori and Pasifika
learners by 2017. As well as ensuring improved participation and educational
achievement for enrolled students, the university sector, through its research and
educational expertise and its role in teacher training, is expected to provide
leadership in raising the participation and achievement levels of Māori and Pasifika
in the whole educational system. Key areas where universities are expected to
contribute include:
 initiatives to achieve parity of participation and achievement levels within the
university sector
 building the motivation and aspiration for university study in Māori and
Pasifika school students through effective outreach and mentoring
programmes
 collaborating with other TEOs to ensure the overall network of provision
provides a range of pathways for Māori and Pasifika to access and succeed
in higher level tertiary study
 piloting and scaling up projects that have enhanced success for Māori and
Pasifika learners
 intensifying and actively disseminating research into what raises participation
and achievement for Māori and Pasifika learners, including through teacher
training and professional practice programmes
 setting appropriate targets around increasing the number of Māori and
Pasifika teaching and research staff employed
 contributing to a coordinated response to education plans created by key
Māori and iwi partners in tertiary education
 improved and clearer pathways for Māori medium education in regions and
increasing the number of Māori medium teachers
 ensuring the number of teachers who are Māori and Pasifika reflects New
Zealand’s changing demographics.
A collaborative approach with other universities, other TEO sectors, the compulsory
education sector, and other key groups that have a stake in the success of these
learners, such as communities, families and whānau, iwi, and churches, is essential
to achieving success for Māori and Pasifika in tertiary settings.
Contributing to the Government’s goals for international education
The university sector plays a key role in reaching the government targets set in the
Leadership Statement for International Education. The TEC will discuss with each
university its planned international EFTS and related initiatives as part of
engagement over the development of a Plan. As per the discussion of international
education in the General Plan Guidance, we want to understand how each
university’s international activity is integrated with and supports the achievement of
its overall strategic mission.
Research strategies and implementation plans that increase research intensity
and build more effective relationships with New Zealand firms to support
research-driven innovation and a highly skilled workforce
In undertaking and disseminating ground-breaking research, universities create a
significant proportion of New Zealand’s intellectual capital and through knowledge
exchange contribute to a wide range of positive social, economic, and environmental
outcomes. However, OECD evidence shows that university research is currently
under-utilised by New Zealand firms and that there are opportunities to drive much
greater innovation and achieve significant productivity gains in the economy.
Encouraging and enabling greater investment from New Zealand firms, and working
with other research institutions such as Crown Research Institutes (CRIs), are key
parts of the way forward.
The TEC’s engagement over Plans will focus on universities’ long-term research
strategies and implementation plans, including approaches to:
 ensuring research excellence is supported
 supporting Mātauranga Māori and building Māori research capability
 contributing to national and international research on indigenous
development, and understanding and communicating its application to the
Māori economy
 increasing the volume and effectiveness of commercial innovation by
connecting the research expertise of the sector and skilled graduates with
businesses, particularly in priority growth sectors and with internationalising
firms
 how resources, including funding from a range of Government agencies, are
used to create and support world-class research-intensive environments
 building scale and focus through effective collaborative relationships
 recruiting and developing new researchers to ensure sustainable research
capability
 the place of research-intensive postgraduate programmes
 benchmarking research productivity against international standards.
As well as engaging over research strategies and planning, the TEC will use Plan
engagement to discuss how the impact of research activities is measured.
Demonstrating the contribution of universities in improving social, economic,
and environmental outcomes for all New Zealanders
Plans play an important role in demonstrating the value added by tertiary education.
The Performance Commitments made in Plans, especially those made using
Educational Performance Indicators (EPIs), provide reliable, standardised
information about the contribution universities make to positive educational
outcomes for learners.
We know that university graduates are more likely to be employed, bring valuable
skills to the workforce, have higher earnings, and enjoy better health and well-being.
However, there is no standard measurement of graduate destinations and this
restricts the ability of learners, universities, and Government to understand and
celebrate the success of the sector. Similarly, while universities’ research activity
makes a vital contribution to better social, economic, and environmental outcomes
for New Zealand, the way this contribution is measured needs to be improved.
This set of Plans provides an opportunity for universities to build on their approaches
to measuring graduate destinations and begin to develop shared ways to more
directly measure the positive outcomes experienced by their alumni. They also
provide an opportunity for universities to take the lead in developing common
indicators of research activity that tell the impact story and clearly demonstrate the
value of the Government’s investment.
While the TEC will engage with universities over how their individual Plans
demonstrate the value of both teaching and research, it will also discuss how it can
support a more collaborative approach to measurement in these two areas (graduate
destinations and research impact). For example, the TEC could assist universities by
making centrally collected data available. While developing a complete approach is
likely to take more than one Plan period, this set of Plans will begin the process.