Greater emphasis is required on the secondary-tertiary interface, according to the NZVCC submission on the Government's Draft Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015.

On the strategy priority of more young people gaining degrees, the Committee suggests that more attention should be given to the importance of improving the interface - "a key issue for universities".

The submission says the draft strategy is silent on this issue "yet a particular block to young people advancing successfully from secondary to degree-level study is the lack of continuity between secondary school and university".

As well as the "more young people gaining degrees" priority, the NZVCC submission comments on three other strategy priorities most relevant to universities - assisting Māori and Pasifika to achieve at higher levels, strengthening research outcomes, and improving the educational and financial performance of providers.

"The NZVCC welcomes the emphasis the draft strategy places on the advancement of Māori and Pasifika students," the submission says.

"Universities are committed to increasing the number of Māori and Pasifika graduates and all universities have strategies in place to strengthen the engagement of Māori and Pacific communities with university education." However, for this priority, an effective secondary-tertiary interface was also an issue.

"Increasing the number of Māori school leavers entering university will be difficult as long as Māori are failing to complete secondary school or leaving school without the necessary qualifications for entry into university."

The NZVCC submission notes that in 2008, 43% of all school leavers attained at least university entrance or a level 3 qualification while only 20% of Māori school leavers did so.

On the research priority, the NZVCC cautions against too great an emphasis on what the strategy refers to as "research of direct relevance to the needs of industry".

While universities were at the forefront of commercialising research results, that was not at the expense of the broader aspects of research, fundamental research being an important part of innovation. It was important to retain the most able of students for postgraduate study.

Although the proportion of postgraduate students had grown from 14.5% of university equivalent full-time students in 2000 to more than 17% in 2007, it would be concerning if the constrained funding environment limited the growth of postgraduate student numbers.

The NZVCC submission queried the draft strategy's reference to an investigation of whether the Performance-Based Research Fund was working well for all parts of the sector.

"The PBRF was not designed to be appropriate for non-research tertiary institutions the focus should be on ensuring that a definition of what constitutes research that is internationally credible is applied consistently across all institutions."

Addressing the draft strategy priority on improving the educational and financial performance of providers, the NZVCC submission supports the increased emphasis on degree completion but notes that it must be linked to improving the preparedness of students at entry to university, another reflection of the importance of the secondary-tertiary interface.

The proposed reduction in the number of sub-degree qualifications is strongly endorsed - "the overall quality of the tertiary education system would be enhanced if Government adopted a deliberate strategy of diverting funding from lower-level certificates to degree programmes". The NZVCC expected that Government would ensure, as part of its emphasis on quality, that non-university providers offering degrees were also required to meet international quality standards.

In general comments on the draft strategy, the submission says the NZVCC has serious concerns over the implication that the current funding limitations will continue for the duration of the new Tertiary Education Strategy - "for universities, this will be counter-productive to achieving the Government's priorities, especially in light of New Zealand's history of internationally low levels of investment in universities and inadequate indexation of funding".

The NZVCC submission gives four examples of how a prolonged limitation on funding would impact on the achievement of Government tertiary education priorities. The priority for more young people gaining degrees was already compromised by the current enrolment cap. Demand for undergraduate and postgraduate places had been boosted by the weak employment market. Coupled with the pipeline effect of students already in the system, and no increase in per-student funding, this would mean student numbers would need to be restricted to maintain quality. That in turn would impact on key groups like Māori and Pasifika - "restricting access to university could impinge heavily on efforts to improve their achievement levels". Without the ability to offer internationally competitive academic salaries and with strong competition from Australia, there were significant implications for recruitment and retention of academic staff in New Zealand universities. In the long term this could affect the quality of university teaching and research. The fourth example was the shortage of sustained funding for research programmes which acted as an impediment to universities achieving increased research and innovation.

On the Government's desire for tertiary education organisations to look for other sources of funding, the NZVCC submission says the expansion of alternative funding sources would be assisted by a reconsideration of the current fees maxima policy. That could provide greater freedom for institutional decision-making and an enhanced ability to differentiate fees among programmes according to the cost of delivery. The submission also called for a halt to Government research funding policies that reduce universities' access to contestable research funding.