Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:617;Page:13133] 
4.  
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) 
: Has the Tertiary Education Commission achieved his objective of ensuring “we have a cohesive and innovative system that encourages learning and uses resources strategically” and creating “a tertiary education system with a greater sense of connection to important national goals”; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education)) 
: 
 If the member had quoted fully the statement I made at the launch of the Tertiary Education Commission he would know that “our plans for achieving these vital goals are all set out in the tertiary education strategy which provides a clear picture of what the sector needs to achieve over the next 5 years”. The Tertiary Education Commission has been in existence for 16 months and I am pleased with its progress. 
Simon Power 
: How can a course such as Cool IT which received $15.3 million in funding be seen to encourage learning when the acting chief executive officer of the polytechnic running the course said she had “no idea” how many people had finished the programme and that “there was no assessment so there was no reason for them to get back to us.”? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: To be fair to the acting chief executive officer of the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology what she actually said was that there were four levels to the Cool IT programme and until they were finished the polytechnic would not know how many people had completed that programme. I say to the member opposite that the profile the polytechnic is currently negotiating with the Tertiary Education Commission means that in future its funding will be accorded to those courses that the commission funds. In the 1990s under the “bums on seats” approach run by the National Party Government that could not have happened. Now it can. 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: Given that the Tertiary Education Commission has been in existence for only 16 months what has it achieved during that time? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Let me give just 20 examples. It has successfully established a complex organisation. It has negotiated 500 tertiary education charters. It has established the Performance-based Research Fund. It has allocated funding to private training establishments on a strategic basis. It has allocated a 19 percent increase in industry trainees including the Modern Apprenticeships programme. It has allocated funding for the Partnerships for Excellence programme. It has overseen the roll-out of the Gateway programme— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Well they want to know. That was just a little of what the commission has done. 
Simon Power 
: Will the Tertiary Education Commission’s financial review of the Cool IT programme be performed by one of its 324 employees or will it be performed instead by a consultant or contractor like one of those on whom the commission spent $6.8 million last year and why is it that only after sustained investigation by Opposition members that the commission has decided to review this course at all? [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The comment was made after the question was asked but there are to be no interjections while questions are being asked. I warn Government members. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The Tertiary Education Commission will undertake this review through its normal staffing. I say to the member opposite that establishing an organisation like this over the last 16 months—a large intermediate body that is common in many countries that run tertiary systems like our own—will of course mean that it hires contractors who later move on. As the member well knows from the questions he has asked most of those staff are inherited from Skill New Zealand the Tertiary Advisory Monitoring Unit and the Ministry of Education. 
Simon Power 
: Does the Minister believe that national goals will be enhanced by the Eastern Institute of Technology course in food and wine matching done by correspondence from “the comfort of your own home” as part of the Correspondence Certificate in Wine advertised as “educate your palate”; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Yes I do. The reason is that if for example one were the Minister of Finance one would know that one was living in one of the regions of the country that has identified food and wine as one of its centres of excellence. Can I say to the member opposite that correspondence teaching is essentially what the university in his own area is a specialist in—extramural teaching in a wide range of courses is exactly what it does. I know he is getting up and down very quickly but he is overheated about nothing. 
Simon Power 
: Why should the Tertiary Education Commission be trusted to fix any of these problems when it has bungled or missed deadlines on so many of its tasks already including the Performance-based Research Fund the landscapes document and the much-awaited charters and profiles report? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: It has not bungled the Performance-based Research Fund; that is regarded as one of the stand-out pieces of policy by the sector itself. It has not bungled the landscapes paper; it has just released the differentiation paper to the applause of the sector. I know that the member on the Opposition benches likes to criticise this organisation but once again I say to him that every system in the world that runs a strategically focused tertiary education system has an intermediate body like this. That is his problem—this is the future of tertiary education.