Comments on: National’s Draft Tertiary Education Strategy is a Dog

By: Rosendo Jaynes

Rosendo Jaynes — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:25:12 +0000

I am a student and i found your information on the site very useful for my study, Please keep it up.

By: Jacqui Poutu

Jacqui Poutu — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:29:53 +0000

I like your submission, mine kinda went straight for the jugular. I will upload my submission on my blog, thanks again my friend!

EXMSS just fascinates me, your website is awesome!
keep up the good work el capitan!

By: caffeineaddict

caffeineaddict — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:45:05 +0000

I understand this daft tertiary education strategy – and it is a little daft, states that polytechnics might be limited to providing certificate and diploma qualifications only – meaning that more people will be lining up to study at Universities. It looks like the Government wants to contain the numbers of students to limit the cost of student loans – yet extramural students studying part time have smaller loans each year, due to the fact they are studying part time( and most are also working) . Furthermore older people should be able to retrain and upskill without having to “complete” degrees. if it helps them in their employment prospects.

By: Grace

Grace — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:32:19 +0000

Hi Ralph,

Just read the Draft and also your submission. Agree with your submission, and also with your summary of the draft – it really does come across that unless you are under 25 and studying full time as an internal student, you don’t exist as far as their “vision” goes. The first statement in the draft is:

“The Government’s vision is for a world-leading education system that equips all New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills and values to be successful citizens in the 21st century.” – and then the rest of the document makes it clear that they aren’t interested in “all New Zealanders”, only a couple of specific target groups. Massey’s extramural programme does not fit neatly into any of their boxes, and neither do most of Massey’s extramural students.

Is there anywhere that we can read Massey’s submission as well? I would be very interested to hear directly from them how they think the draft will effect us extramurals, there are so many questions to be asked (such as what does “less places” mean in real terms? Would this mean that they start prioritizing some courses over others, students doing a first degree over those re-training/doing a second, or those enrolling with a clear “purpose” – i.e If I do this course, I will get X job – over those studying just for the sheer joy of learning etc…) and I think we deserve some answers.