The Ministry of Education, along with the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and Career Services, are the key central government agencies in the reformed tertiary education system.
The Ministry is the government's principal policy advisor on tertiary education matters. It is primarily focused on the strategic dimensions of policy formation, analysis, advice and monitoring. The Tertiary Education Strategy is prepared by the Ministry, in consultation with the other agencies and the sector.
The Tertiary Education Group includes a policy team and Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis and Reporting (TSPAR), which leads the Ministry's analysis of information about the performance of the sector and the dissemination of this information across government agencies and beyond.
Responsibilities
Sector Services Management is responsible for the interface with tertiary education providers and the other government agencies in areas concerned with stewardship of information within an overall virtual Tertiary Information system approach. This includes co-ordinating the information needs of government's tertiary education agencies, overview of integrated information systems, managing the ways in which data is returned from tertiary providers to the Ministry, and for making this data accessible to both internal and external clients.
Tertiary Education Policy is responsible for strategic policy advice.
Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis and Reporting (TSPAR) team leads the Ministry's analysis of information about the performance of the sector and the dissemination of this information across government agencies and beyond.
Māori Education Strategy Tertiary has a leadership role in developing and maintaining Crown Māori relationships in tertiary education.
The Education Sector Leadership team supports the Secretary for Education in her sector leadership role. The team also has responsibility for monitoring the performance of the four central Crown Education Agencies (New Zealand Qualifications Authority, the Tertiary Education Commission, the New Zealand Teachers' Council and Career Services Rapuara), as well as supporting the boards of these Crown entities.