ITP Council Musical Chairs 1 – UCOL

February 2nd 2010 at 12:30pm, By Dave Guerin

Musical ChairsIt’s musical chairs time in ITPs as an average of 14 Council members at each ITP need to fit into the new 8-person Councils from May 1. This is the first post in a series on the new arrangements – in the next post, I’ll do a deeper analysis of the issues, but today I’ll focus on UCOL.

Just before Xmas, the Government passed the Education (Polytechnic ) Amendment Act 2009, which will result in smaller Councils. Compulsory appointment types have also been removed, such as the CEO and student, staff, employer and union representatives. In short, there will now be eight Council members, four appointed by the Minister and four appointed by the Council. The current Councils are deciding appointment methods now.

UCOL decided last week that they would only specify roles for the CEO and an iwi representative, while the other two roles will apparently be chosen by the Council, on skills and background.

The council also agreed on a new statute which outlined the skills nominees required. UCOL chief executive Paul McElroy said the statute aimed to create a balance of representatives. Applicants’ gender, ethnicity, and location will be considered, as well as skills such as tertiary knowledge, governance experience, business background and leadership qualities.

Students and staff (other than the CEO) will probably miss out under this approach, although UCOL might set up a committee to get student input.

ITP Council Musical Chairs Series

  1. UCOL
  2. The Backstory
  3. CEO, Student and Staff Roles
  4. Otago
  5. External Roles
  6. Ministerial Appointees
  7. Minister’s Decisions
  8. The Final Shape of ITP Councils?

4 Responses to ITP Council Musical Chairs 1 – UCOL

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Darel Hall

February 2nd, 2010 at 1:38 pm

I do think that having student representatives on Councils is good. I don’t believe a committee reporting to Council cuts it.

Some people point to problems with the legitimacy of student representatives, eg how can they represent all students’ views? The same, of course, applies to business, union, staff and all reps. It is a facet, not a problem of representation.

I thought the TEC decision to have a non-voting Learner Rep at their board meetings was a halfway measure that looks messy but seemed to work because in many of these situations it’s the voice that matters not the voting (so why not give them the vote . . ).

There was an opinion piece in the Ed Review that argued that student representation on councils was bad, but I actually think he (can’t remember his name) was really on about VSM/ CSM. Are there other views about the value of student representation on councils?

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Paul Williams

February 2nd, 2010 at 4:00 pm

I’d have to say that my observations of various councils leaves me with mixed views as to their effectiveness. I thought rorting of public funding at CPIT was as much a CEO and a governance failure, similarly I wondered where the council was with Otago Poly discovered major flaws in their financial reporting. Then again I’ve been a member of a university council that seemed clear about it’s role and keen to provide strategic leadership (Waikato in the mid ’90s). I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t worry about how student voices are affected by these reforms.

Leaving aside the issue of the number of members, what seems most important to me is that the boad knows its role, is capable and resourced to do it and is accountable both to Ministers and to the regional community. I wonder if any Ministerial appointees recall being contacted by the Minister or the Ministry and asked to account for their contibutions? Perhaps this is what Alan Sarginson did way back when?

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David Choat

February 2nd, 2010 at 5:06 pm

Actually, TAMU’s advice at that stage (and I assume still TEC’s today) is that these people are Ministerial appointees rather than representatives, and it would be inappropriate (and a breach of Section 160?) for the Minister or his/her representatives to do any such thing.

But they did draft for the Minister a set of Ministerial Expectations that applied to all Council members in terms of their duties under the Act.

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Paul Williams

February 2nd, 2010 at 8:59 pm

I’ll not quibble on the law since presumably they had Crown Law’s advice but the insensibility of that must surely be apparent? I’ll simply reiterate my view that the performance of council/governing bodies seemed oddly inconsistent and I’d've thought that an important issue for governments (note the plural).

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