Tertiary investment snapshot 2024

This page gives an overview of the Tertiary Education Commission’s 2024 investment in education, and how it has changed from the previous year.

On this page:

Investment overview

For the financial year 2024/25, $3.83 billion was invested in tertiary education and training, unchanged from the previous year.

$3.33 billion was learner funding (up 2%). This includes tuition and training funding, Fees Free, trades academies, and scholarships and awards.
$0.51 billion was sector capability funding (down 6%). This includes funding for Workforce Development Councils, wānanga, university-led innovation, and tertiary education research and research-based teaching. It also includes funding for Centres for Research Excellence, and Centres for Asia and Pacific Excellence.

Tertiary tuition and training

This funding makes up most learner funding, $3.12 billion of the $3.33 billion allocated to learner funding. This part of funding rose 7% from the previous year. It covers foundation, community, vocational, degree and postgraduate education and training.

Breakdowns of tuition and training funding by value of delivery

Learner funding can be broken down using “value of delivery”, the amount providers planned to spend in the 2024 calendar year. This is different to the $3.12 billion spent in the financial year 2024/25.

Value of delivery rose 9% to $2,749 million. It does not factor in funding caps, payments for over-delivery, and other funding conditions, which are included in the financial year-end figures.

Investment by education level

Degree-level education made up 46% of investment in 2024, and is substantial at $1,262 million. It rose 10% between 2023 and 2024. There was a large increase in postgraduate investment, up 14% from the previous year. Work-based learning was the only type of education where investment decreased, down 7% from the previous year.

Investment by level

Level	Value of delivery ($m)	Percentage change from previous year
Foundation	$163	+14%
Vocational education and training (VET) provider-based	$475	+12%
VET work-based	$305	-7%
Degree	$1,262	+10%
Postgraduate	$543	+14%
Total	$2,749	+9%

Investment per equivalent full-time student (EFTS) or Standard Training Measure (STM)

Investment per student increased across all education levels. Degree and postgraduate investment per student increased the most, both rising by 9% over the year. Postgraduate education had the highest investment per student, $15,100 per EFTS.

Investment per EFTS or STM

Level	Value of delivery per student (EFTS or STM)	Percentage change from previous year
Foundation	$10,700 per EFTS	+6%
VET provider-based	$7,500 per EFTS	+5%
VET work-based	$7,100 per STM	+5%
Degree	$12,300 per EFTS	+9%
Postgraduate	$15,100 per EFTS	+9%

Investment by tertiary education organisation (TEO) type

Universities receive most of the funding (57%), the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology (NZIST) receives 25%, private training establishments (PTEs) receive 12%, and wānanga receive 6%.

Between 2023 and 2024, value of delivery rose by more than 10% for all organisation types except NZIST, which saw a decrease of 3% from the previous year.

Investment by TEO type

TEO type	Value of delivery ($m)	Percentage change from previous year
University	$1,556	+11%
NZIST	$698	-3%
PTE	$329	+14%
Wānanga	$166	+10%

Investment in qualifications and programmes

The tables below list the top five funded qualifications and programmes for VET, and for degree and postgraduate education combined.

Health had the highest investment overall, $454 million in 2024. It also had the highest growth in investment, up 13% from the previous year. Investment grew strongly in management and commerce for both VET, and degree and postgraduate, up 13% for both categories.

VET – top five funded qualifications and programmes

Subject area	Value of delivery ($m)	Percentage change from previous year
Engineering and related technologies	$184	+2%
Society and culture	$157	+9%
Architecture and building	$155	-3%
Management and commerce	$67	+13%
Agriculture, environmental and related studies	$53	-3%

Degree and postgraduate – top five funded qualifications

Subject area	Value of delivery ($m)	Percentage change from previous year
Health	$454	+13%
Natural and physical sciences	$272	+7%
Society and culture	$262	+11%
Management and commerce	$159	+13%
Mixed field programmes	$158	+10%

Reporting approaches and data sources

Reporting approaches

New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework (NZQCF)

The NZQCF is the official framework used to recognise the level of senior secondary school and tertiary qualifications. There are 10 levels of the NZQCF. For more information see: About the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework (NZQCF) – New Zealand Qualifications Authority

Education levels

We group enrolments into foundation education, vocational education and training (VET), degree education, and postgraduate education. These groupings are useful in describing the type of education offered by tertiary education providers alongside the NZQCF level of education.

For example, foundation education is lower tertiary education focused on employability skills and supports progression to higher levels of tertiary education, whereas VET is focused on job-specific skills and on-the-job training.

While these categories have some alignment to the NZQCF, they are not the same. For example, Youth Guarantee (YG)-funded education is considered foundation education even though it includes level 3. NZQCF Level 3 is normally considered VET, but not in this instance.

Data sources

TEC annual report figures

For more information about the financial figures, see the Tertiary Education Commission Annual Report 2024/25.

TEC value of delivery figures

“Value of delivery” is derived from TEC administrative sources. TEC collects this information through its Single Data Return and work-based data collections. For more information about these data sources see: