ABSTRACT
In New Zealand, participation rates in tertiary education have risen sharply, and students have been required to carry an increasing proportion of the total cost of their education. Between 1990 and 2006, New Zealand, consciously or otherwise, conducted a radical experiment in market-driven tertiary education. Governments facing increased financial demands, and seeking to justify the costs by enhancing business innovation and workforce productivity, have based their investments in tertiary education ever more closely on economic priorities, and demanded increasing levels of institutional responsiveness and accountability. The government began a protracted consultative process, in which university interests gradually assumed a dominant role. Both the government and the providers wanted a rational and predictable funding system that reflected the real value of tertiary education to students, communities, industry, and business. The government clearly wishes to encourage mission differentiation, between and within the various categories of provider, in order to reduce competition and encourage collaboration across the broader tertiary education sector.
