Ako Aotearoa Takes Stock of Tertiary Teaching Qualifications

Media Release

31 August 2010

Ako Aotearoa Takes Stock of Tertiary Teaching Qualifications 

The National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence – Ako Aotearoa – this week launches the findings from its commissioned stock-take of tertiary qualifications and formal (and informal) support.  >>Read the report

The report, titled Tertiary Practitioner Education Training and Support – Taking Stock, provides a comprehensive landscape of what is happening across the sector in relation to building staff capability and supporting their development.  Describing the New Zealand approach to this Dr Peter Coolbear, Director of Ako Aotearoa, uses words like “singularly complex” and “confused”.  He says, “There were over 100 different qualifications listed in our initial search of the data, this reduced to 62 currently active programmes with further analysis.  What is critical here is that the research shows us three-quarters of teachers gain their qualification from just eight of those programmes.  The system is at best confusing and, quite frankly, a bit of a mess.”

For the majority of tertiary organisations this news will not be surprising.  The stock-take raises some significant questions for the tertiary decision-makers, and the tertiary professional development community in New Zealand, about the nature of professional development provision for new teachers in the sector.

Key findings from the work include:

• Different parts of the sector are in the process of rethinking their approaches to the induction and support of new teaching staff. However approaches vary widely from institution to institution.
• Publicly available summary data on the range of qualifications available for tertiary teachers are confusing. Initial keyword searches of national databases indicated there were 106 qualifications available to tertiary teachers from certificate to Masters level. However almost a quarter of these were identified as not intended for the education and training of tertiary staff. Of the 81 correctly identified by the metadata, 62 were active.
• More than 8,000 people gained a tertiary teaching qualification between 2004 and 2008, with over 75% gaining qualifications at Levels 4 or 5. Of these Level 4 and 5 certificates gained, 74% were national certificates.
• A significant number of qualifications do not appear to be graduating sustainable numbers of students. For example, 75% of all qualifications awarded during this period were for completions in just 13% of the qualifications (three national and five local).
• Graduate profiles for different qualifications are highly variable. Many provide very limited information about the skills, knowledge and attributes that employers may expect from graduates.
• It is difficult to identify clear academic progression between qualifications at Levels 4,5 and 6 or between Levels 8 and 9 in published graduate profiles. The popularity of local Level 6 qualifications fell dramatically between 2004 when there were 243 qualifications issued and 2008 (11). Data suggests that demand for postgraduate qualifications is increasing.
• There are distinct differences between different parts of the sector in the importance attached to teaching qualifications. PTEs place a higher value on prior teaching experience and qualifications as a selection criteria than other parts of the sector, but most ITPs and PTEs require full-time staff to gain tertiary teaching qualifications or the equivalent after starting employment. Around half of the respondents in both these sub-sectors require part-time staff to gain such qualifications.
• There are distinct differences between sectors in the types of support offered to new teaching staff. A much larger proportion of ITPs offer reduced workloads to support new teaching staff than either universities or PTEs. The majority of PTEs and just under half the ITPs offer mentor support, while team teaching is also a favoured support approach in a large number of PTEs. Most providers offer induction programmes to new staff, with these programmes having very similar content, with the exception being that the universities generally do not include moderation of assessment as a significant component of their programmes.
• Most ITOs require their assessors to undertake formal training in assessment and also offer induction courses for new assessors. Most responding ITOs use mentoring support for new staff and/or membership of assessor networks as key components of support programmes.

Dr Coolbear comments “One of the most interesting (and perhaps surprising) findings of the study is that we have been unable to identify any consensus from the graduate profiles of these qualifications on the core competencies for new tertiary teachers. There is clearly scope for further discussion here and we intend to pursue this in the near future.” 

Now that the stock-take has been published, Ako Aotearoa seeks to work closely with the tertiary sector to build solutions that are sustainable and strive for the highest quality tertiary education possible in New Zealand. 
Projects International was commissioned to conduct the stock-take for Ako Aotearoa earlier this year. 
Copies of the publication are being distributed to all managers of tertiary organisations and Dr Coolbear encourages people to provide feedback.  The report is also available at: www.akoaotearoa.ac.nz/qualificationstocktake or in hard copy by emailing your request to: info@akoaotearoa.ac.nz . 

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J.Tanner-Lloyd
Communications Co-ordinator
Ako Aotearoa
J.Tanner-Lloyd@massey.ac.nz