Steven Joyce has decided to continue his fight with universities over the size of their Councils. Since May of this year he has sent signals that he thinks the Councils are “large and unweildly” and need to be more “entrepreneurial”. Most recently he has added that they are ‘slow to react’, not pursuing commercialisation of research as ‘effectively’ as they could and ‘lagging’ in international education initiatives.
The Universities have finally hit back at the latest accusations noting that we have the fifth highest rate of international students in the world, how they do well in innovation and that there is no evidence that the size of Councils is holding back institutions.
But make no mistake about what is really at stake here. This is about exerting more control over one of the pillars of a free and democratic society. By law, and in practice, universities have autonomy and academic freedom. They have this because they play a vital role in challenging and questioning what happens in our country and world. Their role as independent critic and conscience of society and their responsibility to the wider community will be undermined by greater Ministerial control over the membership of their governing body.
Of course we don’t know exactly what Mr Joyce wants to do because he has not been prepared to release any of the papers that he has received on this issue. I have requested them under the Official Information Act, and not only have I been denied access to the papers, he has even refused to tell me the titles. The Ombudsmen is currently considering that decision.
We can however, take a pretty good guess given what the government did to Polytechnics. They dramatically reduced the size of Councils, removed guaranteed representation from the community, including students and staff, and controlled the appointments of the leadership of the Council. With Polytechnics the Minister now appoints four people, who then in turn appoint another four. And they get to decide who is the Chair of the Council.
Despite not releasing any proposals, the Minister has been communicating with universities about the size of their Councils. I understand he has been trying to see if he can convince them to reduce in size without changing legislation. I don’t fancy his chances.
No one is trying to pretend that Universities have or should have carte blanche to spend taxpayer money as they please, but their independence and responsibility to the community should be sacrosanct.
The place and role of univeristies in New Zealand is delicately balanced in law. The Education Act gives them autonomy and academic freedom, but their strategy and funding are managed through the Tertiary Education Strategy (TES) and the investment plans agreed with the TEC. Steven Joyce passed up the opportunity at the start of this year to alter the TES, and so its vision and goals stand. Interestingly it does not emphasise the issues he is now accusing the Councils of failing to focus on sufficiently.
Beyond the point of principle, is this really the most important thing that Steven Joyce can come up with in terms of making univeristies a driving force of our economic and social development? He would be better served to be working alongside the sector on how it is going to provide the quality research and teaching that will drive innovation and academic excellence in the coming decades, and using the powers that he has to work with the sector to deliver the outcomes he wants.
Univeristies are not immune to change or to being given some direction, but launching a coup on the governing bodies of the institutions is a threat to an essential independent check and balance in our democratic infrastructure. It does not respect the role of universities in our society, nor is it in the spirit of the system that governns them. Back off Mr Joyce.
The National party makes much of the business background of some of its members. This may well indicate that they have expertise in running and controlling an enterprise of some sort. BUT are centres of learning best run in the manner of business? Surely we should seriously question that.
Captains of industry place much store in control, mainly for the best profit of the enterprise That is fine – but control of government ‘enterprises’, particularly those connected with education must be approached with considerations other than profit, or even ‘efficiciency for its own sake’.
Joyce has a media background, and it would be comforting to think that, the media, like ‘education’, gives serious consideration to ‘ public service’ but we know that that is sadly very often not so.
Universities are one state institution that should be as far removed from govt interferance as possible. Politicians attempting to ‘monster’ University Councils with respect to their structure is worrying, as is so much of the interferance with education by this administration
The guy really is a d***.
After all he wants to be Head of the Ministry of Everything.
The Minister already appoints four “titans” of industry on each Council. Just a few salient points on the state of NZ’s Universities:
1. New Zealand Universities as a whole are extremely efficient when compared to overseas universities. For example, when looking at world wide rankings of institutions, Auckland does remarkably well given its very low level of funding.
2. Universities are not businesses that ride the winds of the market with the booms and busts. They are institutions that must continue to exist while businesses continue their natural cycle of birth, growth and death.
3. The government attempting to directly influence students’ careers is doomed to fail. A few years ago there were not enough teachers so lots of incentives were put in place to increase the numbers of teachers. Now there is a glut of teachers. Today the one of the focuses is on science. Yes, science is vital to New Zealand’s future, but those scientists need jobs and there just aren’t the number of science jobs to go round. The Government should be forcing private industry to invest more in R&D. It is absurd that Fontera (our largest corporate) is a large recipient of government funded research.
The Universities must continue to be independent of the ruling party for all the reasons articulated by Grant Robertson – Joyce’s actions are yet another sad and worrying example of a Government attempting to ignore the separation of powers doctrine.
At the heart of Joyce’s current meddling in Universities is the desire for the Government to put less money into the sector (witness the calls by Joyce that Universities should be increasing their numbers of international students to fund their activities). All the research shows that increased investment in the public tertiary sector (and indeed the public education sector as a whole) leads to a vibrant and strong economy. The penny pinching attitude of a secession of Governments is short sighted and the effects are apparent for all to see. New Zealand continues to slide down every ranking list that lists positive attributes and we are climbing rapidly all those lists that we would prefer that we did not