In response to a Government request, the Productivity Commission is currently undertaking an inquiry into ‘new models of tertiary education’. At a time when the technological and social climate is changing so rapidly that our current model is struggling to keep up, this inquiry presents an opportunity for the Institute to set out ideas we have gathered as to how New Zealand might adopt a more dynamic tertiary education model that is fit for the 21st century.

This think piece explores how the tertiary education system could change today in order to foster the development of skills that will be required of New Zealanders in the long term. In fifty years, the current cohort of young tertiary students will be in their early seventies, and a vastly different set of 17- to 25-year-olds will have inherited the world of tertiary institutions. How can we make space for this difference? How can we prepare our young people for a world that is continuously becoming more connected and therefore more complex? How can we change the purpose of our education system to reflect this?

This think piece is broken up into three parts: (i) What have we learnt through hosting public policy workshops for young people? (ii) What is not working? and (iii) How might New Zealand become a trailblazer in tertiary education?