Education refocused to meet 21st century needs

Massey University will lead the change in education needed to ensure New Zealand's teachers and schools are equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey says.

Mr Maharey today announced a restructure of the University's 16-year-old College of Education into a research-focused institute that concentrates on graduate and postgraduate teaching qualifications.

He says teachers must lead a revolution in education and Massey takes seriously its responsibility to contribute in a way that will benefit New Zealand economically, socially and culturally.

"We need children to be creative, innovative and connected and we need teachers who recognise this – teachers who are being paid more because of the qualities they bring to the classroom."

The change, developed by college Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor James Chapman, was unanimously endorsed by the University's Academic Board last month and approved by the University Council last week.

Professor Chapman says the focus on graduate and postgraduate programmes will make Massey unique among New Zealand universities that offer teaching qualifications and align it with recognised world leaders in the field.

"We will create an environment for educational research and postgraduate education that is unmatched in New Zealand and equal to the world's leading university education institutions.

"Our goal is for education staff to have a far better opportunity to engage in research – and that will be good for New Zealand and good for New Zealand's reputation internationally. It will also result in a more highly qualified teaching profession, with better job prospects and better promotion opportunities here and overseas."

The University will also aim to offer graduate diplomas in teaching at its Albany campus for secondary and early childhood teachers from 2014 and 2015 respectively. These diploma programmes will add to the existing primary graduate qualification offered at the campus and provide opportunities for about 120 more students in the fast-growing area of greater Auckland.

At the Manawatu campus, Massey will aim to add an internal offering for graduate early childhood teaching, while graduate primary teaching will now be offered to distance learners as well as internally.

It means initial teacher education undergraduate programmes will be phased out but all students in current undergraduate programmes will be taught to completion. There are no planned job losses as a result of the change, although over time positions will be reviewed as the focus changes from undergraduate to graduate and postgraduate teaching programmes.

"Too much of the current debate – whether on class sizes, charter schools or national standards – is looking backwards," Professor Chapman says. "Talking about what might have worked in the past or moving back to a more regimented system is pointless when, in fact our system has been among the world's best. But the world is moving, and we have to move even faster to meet those needs.

"The issues we should be talking about are teacher supply, teacher quality, and how to stop a tail of failure in our system that threatens to grow as our population changes and the world's needs change.

"I want to express my sincere thanks to all those who provided feedback and suggestions. I have written to the Minister of Education and the Tertiary Education Commission to advise them of the final decision. I have been keeping them and other stakeholders appraised of the detail of this proposal as it has developed. What is proposed is in line with government policy but we will need to ask the Education Minister to lift the current moratorium on new teacher education programmes to allow Massey to offer high quality post-graduate teacher education programmes."