Establishing the Tertiary Education Commission: An illustrative case of experimentation and learning in policy implementation

The public policy processes related to establishing the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) in New Zealand were researched as part of larger investigation of the dynamics and interdependencies of public policy processes focused on complex societal problems related to tertiary education, between 1989 and 2008 (Eppel, 2010). This case illustrates how seemingly simple policy ideas play out in practice when the complexity of implementation is not front-of-mind throughout the policy process.