News

In a prime example of how The New Zealand Herald has gone tabloid, they claimed last week that an international report shows that “New Zealand university degrees are the most worthless in the developed world”.

The OECD report showed that the life-long value of a New Zealand man’s tertiary education was a mere $63,000 and a woman’s $38,000. This compares to the value of an American tertiary qualification, which comes in at $395,000.

However, the reporter, who Critic speculates graduated from the Southern Institute of Journalism, failed to account for the fact that the figures included all tertiary qualifications, not just University degrees. The OECD report specifically separates tertiary education into two groups: “Group A” which is University Degrees, and “Group B” which is mostly comprised of Polytechnics. The poor figures come from a combination of these two groups.

Among those who have a New Zealand University Degree, there is in fact an earnings gain of 46% over those with just NCEA Level 3, which is higher than the oft-aspired-to Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Professor Jacqueline Rowarth of Waikato University’s management school told The Herald that students are “sold a crock by people telling them to follow their passion. We fund an awful lot of peculiar courses.”

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce (who The Herald informatively points out has a zoology degree), said that the Government wanted other qualifications to have their fees either greatly decreased or wiped, with there being no income premium for these students to repay a student loan.

Labour MP Louisa Wall said “the concern I have is the reality of people who get an MA or a PhD going overseas where they are remunerated and valued better.”

Kim Campbell, head of the Employers and Manufacturers Association, agrees that big companies overseas pay a vast amount more for top employees. He pointed out that while in New Zealand you can climb to about ten times the entry-level pay rate, it isn’t uncommon to get 200 times that overseas. Critic wonders where these $7 million dollar/year jobs are exactly.

New Zealand has the seventh highest rate of those who have attained tertiary education in the OECD. Coincidentally, our tertiary education fees are also the seventh highest.

In related news, Ministry of Social Development figures released to the ODT show that 8.74% of the 49,222 people currently on the dole have either a professional qualification or degree.

The figure is down from the 9.61% rate at the peak of the recession in 2010, but as the ODT points out, it is in fact likely to be higher due to Christchurch Earthquake-related unemployment being excluded.

Paula Bennett, Minister of Social Development, told The ODT that it was “a bumpy road out of the recession,” and it is for this reason that the welfare system exists.