The Auckland region will continue to lead the population and economic growth across New Zealand. To ensure Auckland is able to reach the growth projected, the tertiary education system has a crucial role in providing for a skilled and productive workforce that meets the demands of its stakeholders. The role of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is to invest in a responsive and collaborative tertiary education system that provides equitable access to the region’s growing and diverse population.
The review of existing research highlights the challenge of achieving equitable tertiary education access in Auckland, based on the socio-economic mix of the region’s growing population. In the next 25 years, Auckland will face population growth that is faster than the rest of New Zealand, as well as a younger, more ethnically diverse population profile, that will place stronger tertiary education demands on the region’s TEOs.
The objective of this study on Auckland is to inform future investment in tertiary education and training across the region by identifying the tertiary education needs and how they can be best addressed by the TEC. Due to the concentration and projected growth of youth for Auckland, the study is focused on the tertiary investment needs of youth across Auckland.
The study found there is presently under-investment across the Auckland region as well as limited tertiary education access in the most disadvantaged areas. With a third of the nation’s youth concentrated in the Auckland region, there is a noticeable gap between available tertiary provision and those wishing to access such provision. While the Auckland region attracted a quarter of the nation’s tertiary education investment for 2008, this is considerably lower than the potential learner demand across the region. With the youth population in Auckland projected to reach 39% by 2031 there is an explicit need for tertiary education to serve and connect the youth to the knowledge economy and society.
Findings from the study showed the tertiary education needs are consistent with the following themes:
- targeted vocational and foundation level training opportunities to assist and encourage those with no formal qualifications to re-engage with the tertiary system, especially in areas of Manukau City and Papakura District
- collaborative contribution between local providers in the region to form a cohesive and pathway focused programme of delivery
- stakeholder focused approach to identifying and addressing the needs of the communities, learners, industry and stakeholders to ensure the programme delivered are of relevance and applicability to the users of the system through processes such as regional facilitation
- facilitate the access, engagement, success of all students in the tertiary environment especially those from socially deprived backgrounds and those most disengaged with tertiary education
The focus of this analysis is to provide an access perspective to the investment needs across the Auckland region. In order to effectively plan delivery that will meet the needs of the tertiary education stakeholders, engagement must occur at the institutional and community level to allow for greater connectedness and relevance. As such, it is considered the responsibility of the tertiary education organisations (TEOs) to engage, identify, and deliver to the needs of their stakeholders
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify the tertiary education access needs of Auckland’s diverse and growing population. The findings of this study will form an information base to inform the future TEC investment into tertiary education across the Auckland region.
The study is based on a comprehensive literature review of existing research on Auckland. The review found several drivers common to the tertiary education needs identified in the literature. These were:
- population growth
- equitable tertiary education access and success for all learners
- industry growth and development
- clear and informative pathways through the tertiary system
Whilst all the factors that were identified are important to tertiary education across the region, the focus of this study on tertiary education access is significant in enhancing opportunities for tertiary education success and for achieving the Government’s goals stipulated in the Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015 (MOE, 2009).
A common concern across the stakeholder groups is the equity in tertiary education access, with the most affected and under-represented groups being Māori and Pacific Peoples and youth. Inequalities in tertiary education are, to a great extent, dictated by inequities in preceding levels of education (OECD, 2008; Le & Miller, 2005). However, equitable access to tertiary provision is more important in ensuring those most disadvantaged can have opportunities to access and succeed in the tertiary environment. While there are defined groups targeted for equitable access, the present analysis examines the extent to which access inequity is experienced across the population.
In the following sections, this paper will examine the access needs across the Auckland region to inform the appropriate tertiary education investment needed to ensure and equitable access for students across the region.
This paper does not attempt to examine or identify the needs of industry. It is considered the responsibility of the TEOs to ensure stakeholder relevant delivery that is aligned to Government priorities. Through processes such as regional facilitation, TEOs can engage and align their delivery to the needs of the communities and stakeholders they serve.
Methodology
To examine tertiary education access, analysis must focus on those most susceptible to participation barriers as they are also more likely to be negatively impacted by inequitable access. For this reason, the present analysis is focused on Auckland’s secondary school students. While secondary school students may move out of their school region for tertiary study, equitable opportunities should be provided to allow students to access relevant local provision when they decide to participate in the tertiary education system.
Student location is an indicative measure as students may change their residential or enrolment location during their studies or study at multiple providers in a given period. The present analysis defines secondary school student location as secondary school location reported by the Ministry of Education (MOE) school roll register, and tertiary student location as the Single Data Return (SDR) enrolment event location reported by the TEO.
Due to the timing of the report and the analysis, this study uses the funding and tertiary participation data from the 2008 academic year.