NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE, No. 37

29 MARCH 2012

-- Māori learners;
-- Pacific learners;
-- young people under 25 years; and
-- learners needing improved literacy, language and numeracy skills;

• meeting the needs of employers, businesses and industry;
• improving performance (including but not limited to educational performance) across TEC-funded programmes and activities;
• any key initiatives and/or changes related to the outcomes the TEO is seeking to contribute to through its proposed Plan, as outlined in the Plan Context.

6. Particular requirements for Plans of tertiary education institutions

To enable tertiary education institutions to report on performance compared with proposed outcomes in their Statement of Service Performance (SSP), plans of TEIs should include a forecast SSP².

The forecast SSP should be prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP).

The forecast SSP should reflect the full scope of the institution’s activities, which will include but not be covered completely by the Performance Commitments.

The forecast SSP should focus on the outputs/services of the institution, and must include measures and visible information about the quality of these services.

The broader Plan should present a clear and structured narrative that describes how the outputs in the SSP contribute to the TEI’s proposed outcomes.

The Outcomes Framework agreed with the TEC, or an institution’s own outcomes framework, should facilitate this narrative. The TEC expects the narrative to rely on research, such as in the General Social Survey and the Employment Outcomes of Tertiary Education report, showing how outputs aggregated by subsector or qualification levels and areas contribute to high-level outcomes.

7. Other supplementary information for tertiary education institutions

The TEC may ask tertiary education institutions to provide additional information about their financial outlook to accompany their proposed Plans.

This might include forecast financial statements, capital asset management information, and any other information and explanations needed to fairly reflect the forecast financial operations and financial position of the institution (eg information about subsidiaries for which the institution has residual liability).

The TEC may use this additional information when assessing the potential of the institution to meet its proposed performance commitments.

8. Decision making criteria

These criteria allow the TEC to assess the alignment of an eligible TEO’s proposed direction and activities to Government priorities and regional and national need, as well as its capability to deliver on its Plan. The purpose of this assessment is for the TEC to determine which (if any) of the tertiary education programmes and activities in the proposed Plan to fund, and the amount and the period of funding.

TEC will make a holistic judgement on these matters.

(i) For tertiary education institutions only, the TEC will use the following criteria to assess proposed Plans:

• Whether the institution’s proposed mission and role, and the outcomes the institution intends to contribute to, show an awareness of the institution’s place in the regional and national tertiary system;
• whether the institution has clearly and accurately identified its key stakeholders, which must include:
  • employers, businesses or industries relevant to the institution’s areas of delivery; and
  • learners or prospective learners, in particular those who are Māori, or Pacific, or under the age of 25, or who have low levels of literacy, language, and numeracy;
• how the institution has ascertained the needs of its key stakeholders, including through consultation and the use of statistical information about regional or national demographics and labour market demand;
• how the institution has planned its proposed programmes and activities to respond to the needs of its stakeholders and the priorities of the Tertiary Education Strategy 2010–2015;
• whether the TEC considers that the institution is likely to be able to carry out the programmes and activities (including capital asset management), and contribute to the outcomes, outlined in the proposed Plan;
• whether the TEC considers that the institution’s proposed programmes and activities (including capital asset plans) are desirable and appropriate in the context of regional and national need and the proposed programmes and activities of other TEOs;
• whether the institution’s proposed performance measures are:
  • relevant, so that they give meaningful information about the institution’s performance against its objectives;
  • complete, so that they cover all significant programmes and activities the institution intends to undertake, and all important dimensions of those activities;
  • clearly presented, so that their content and relevance is clear;
• whether the institution’s proposed performance commitments are appropriate and achievable, and whether they represent a meaningful improvement on past performance against the objectives of the Tertiary Education Strategy 2010–2015, especially with respect to outcomes for priority learner groups;
• whether the institution has performed adequately against current or past Plans, including:
  • whether the institution’s educational performance is satisfactory, and whether it meets the upper thresholds of the TEC’s Performance Linked Funding framework;
  • whether the institution’s financial performance is satisfactory, as determined by the TEC’s Financial Monitoring Framework assessment;
  • whether the institution has good management capability in forecasting, planning and implementation, and can provide supplementary information such as capital asset management reporting; and
• whether the institution meets the expectations expressed in this notice regarding the inclusion of a forecast SSP in its Plan.