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Maori Development Minsiter Te Ururoa Flavell says the effectiveness of the Tertiary Education Commission in overseeing courses needs to come under scrutiny in the review of suspect courses.
Te Whare Wananga o Awanuirangi and the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki have already paid back almost $10 million for tourism and Maori performing arts courses where teaching hours fell well short of the amount being funded.
Reviews are planned for another 10 courses around the country that have been red flagged because of a high level of outsourcing of teaching; extremely high pass rates; and unexpected surges in enrolment numbers.
Mr Flavell is welcoming the investigations, because students should expect quality teaching given the costs and sacrifices involved.
He says it’s not only wananga and Maori courses involved, and it points to wider problems in the sector.
"The institutions have got to be held to account but also the government agencies whose role it is to monitor these institutions because they do it on a regular basis by way of checking on results, checking on the standard of education delivered by courses across the country so there are a number of players involved and I am happy that each one of them has to go through that review process including hopefully the Tertiary Education Commission," he says.
Mr Flavell says the reviews should not detract from the good work being done by wananga and polytechs in preparing people for jobs.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH TE URUROA FLAVELL CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjQzMzc=
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