There have been many articles written which describe the changing financial environment currently faced by tertiary institutions. In New Zealand our Universities and Polytechnics have faced a gradual per-student reduction in government funding over the past decade and, despite the public utterances of ministers of education, there is little evidence that this is anything but a continuing trend. This has pushed institutions towards the so-called “commercialisation of the education sector”. It means greater efficiencies in the delivery of courses, greater emphasis on the marketing of popular courses and reductions in the numbers of general and academic staff. The dreaded word “restructuring” has begun to be whispered in the corridors and staff lounges of Universities, a state akin to the whisperings of “downsizing” and “core business concentration” among the true corporates of our economies. Interestingly, this shift in tertiary institution modeling at the macro level has been reflected down at the micro level of individual courses and assessments and it is this low level change which has prompted this paper.