This report examines the association between the price of bachelors-level tuition at New Zealand universities with the results of the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) Quality Evaluation.
Key Results
- There was a positive association between the relative domestic tuition fees of a bachelors-level course and the relative quality of research at that university, but it was very weak. Therefore, if students inferred quality from the relative price of a course they may have incorrectly assumed higher price means higher quality.
- The weak association was likely a result of different price strategies at the universities during the 1990s, with some universities setting fees with the objective of maintaining affordability for students.
- If price is a poor indicator of institutional quality, the public availability of a wider set of performance measures may help the decision-making-process of students.