Duncan Helen: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Duncan Helen: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:621;Page:16515] 
1. HELEN DUNCAN (Labour) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) 
: What initiatives is he putting in place to encourage tertiary education institutions to become more focused on the quality of teaching and learning? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education)) 
: 
 Last Friday the Government announced a new student component performance measure to help improve the quality of teaching in the sector by highlighting student retention looking at completion rates and establishing a nationwide student survey. This will shift the focus of providers away from simply enrolling students towards helping them succeed and ensuring they are enrolled in courses that meet their needs. The performance measure emphasises teaching excellence just as the Performance-based Research Fund emphasises excellence in research. Providers with the weakest performance will receive additional assistance and attention from the Tertiary Education Commission. 
Helen Duncan 
: What other initiatives are in place to encourage excellence in teaching and learning? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: For the past 3 years we have been running the very successful Tertiary Teacher Excellence Awards to recognise the top examples of teaching practice from across the tertiary sector. Before the end of the year I intend to announce a new package of initiatives to support professional development for tertiary teachers and that will be implemented in the following year. All in all we are looking at a very good environment for emphasising the quality of tertiary teaching. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why would anyone in tertiary education take the Minister seriously on this when he has exercised no accountability whatsoever for tens of millions of dollars spent on low-quality low-grade courses such as Christchurch Polytechnic’s Cool IT which cost the taxpayer $15 million; 13000 enrolled students did not do the course and no-one has taken responsibility for it? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: People in tertiary education will take the Government seriously because they have already seen the success of the Performance-based Research Fund which they were directly involved in and they have also been directly involved in all of the teaching excellence measures that I announced Friday and today. That is why they will take it seriously. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Will the Associate Minister consider an initiative to create a new class of tertiary institution namely a university of technology to enable Unitec to focus on learning and teaching rather than on chasing university status as it has since 1996? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The member’s question gives me the opportunity to say that I have been approached by the member representing the New Zealand First Party to raise the issue of universities of technology and I have agreed that we will explore that issue. 
Bernie Ogilvy 
: Will student evaluations of teaching and learning be made publicly available in light of the fact that resources such as Kiwi Quals website give prospective students little information about the quality of different courses when the dubious quality of some of those courses has been a major concern? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Yes the point of the nationwide student survey is to provide comparable public information so that students have a better basis on which to make up their minds when choosing the institution they want to go to. 
Helen Duncan 
: What other indicators other than those mentioned in the answer to the primary question were considered for the performance measure? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: We considered the ability to sustain public interest the strong engagement with community and industry organisations and the ability to establish a coherent programme—exactly the kind of indicators that for example the National Party has failed to comply with over the last little while but which we expect our institutions to comply with. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Another lie from him. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I heard that comment—the member knows he made it. The member will stand withdraw and apologise or he leaves the House. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I will leave the House Mr Speaker. 
Gerry Brownlee withdrew from the Chamber. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is a long-time habit of that particular Minister at the end of every single question to go outside the Standing Orders and make references to matters for which he has no responsibility. These are not only incorrect but are simply outside of his ministerial responsibility and are in breach of the Standing Orders. We on this side of the House simply seek for you to require Ministers to comply with the Standing Orders and not allow them to make statements that are incorrect and outside of what the answer requires. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: On that particular point of order I can say that I was about to say exactly that to the Minister because he did go outside the Standing Orders. However a comment was made that cannot be accepted in this House. 
Bernie Ogilvy 
: Can the Minister confirm that university lecturers are not required to undertake any sort of training in teaching practices and does he view the introduction of a performance-based element to the student component as a catalyst for providers to ensure that their teaching staff do have this kind of training? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I can confirm that tertiary teachers are not required to have a teaching credential but it is certainly my opinion that we are moving now into an era when they will be required to do so. What we are going to be funding in the near future is the basis for professional development across the tertiary sector which I personally hope will lead to them being credentialed.