Australia isn’t alone in going through a landmark review of higher education, and rather than expecting all the answers to come from within, we should sense check our experience and proposed solutions with those who are trying or have tried ...
More »NZ will reap its education failures
Maori and migrant communities will soon form New Zealand’s majority – but the system is failing them. Two strands of discussion have come together this week in New Zealand, in much the same way as they did in Australia a ...
More »VET: Finding a parity of esteem
New Zealand’s struggles with tertiary reform may provide some guidance for its neighbour across the ditch. By Stuart Middleton. From this side of the Tasman, the weekly soap opera that appears to be TAFE in Australia makes interesting reading. We ...
More »Breaking out of the unskilled cycle
If society is ready to subsidise contraception for young mums it should also help with their education, writes Stuart Middleton. The New Zealand government is to introduce a program whereby young mothers, teen mums, can get long-lasting but reversible contraception ...
More »East meets West, by degrees
With less individual choice, the decision about VET or university is made easier in China but like us they are still hung up about status, writes Stuart Middleton. As I promised, I write again partly from China, partly from an ...
More »Statistics can drive us to distraction
The real picture of an institution’s success can be disguised by inaccurate descriptions of course completion figures. One of the greater consumer scandals of the recent past in New Zealand were the revelations that the importers of second-hand motor vehicles were ...
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