UC has five regional campuses. Two are in UC’s South Island hinterland (Nelson and Timaru) but the others are in Tauranga, Rotorua and New Plymouth. The network was established by the Christchurch College of Education (CCE) prior to its merger with UC in 2007. CCE was probably the most entrepreneurial of the former colleges of education and I imagine they saw potential in the regional centres to increase their enrolments at marginal cost. If I were a UC manager, however, with a desire for research output and faced with higher cost structures, I would see the centres as a negative. The centres may well be facing a high overhead charge from the university (which would have little relationship to the actual cost to the University), while they may not be conducive to a research culture with possibly part-time staff, and staff being isolated from the main campus. It is not just an issue for Nelson either, with UC also looking to close down the Rotorua campus (I wrote about Massey’s closure of its Napier campus in June).

The locals (including school principals, the mayor and the local MP) are threatening to approach a new provider if UC leaves, but I wonder who could come in. There is probably real room for a medium cost provider to offer a distributed network of teacher education but it couldn’t be done by a university, which would face the same problems as UC, while ITPs and PTEs are constrained for EFTS right now. Te Wananga O Aotearoa could probably do it, but it doesn’t seem to be their focus right now. NMIT seems to be suggesting that they could help with a solution, but they’d still need to find someone to offer the specialist teacher education capabilities. One of the weaknesses of the current regulatory environment is that new initiatives are difficult to get off the ground.

Following on from last week’s story on nursing, I think UC’s proposals are a good example of what happens if you shift professional education to a university environment - research becomes more important over time, and this leads to a reduction in teaching-only staff and an increase in central cost structures. Those factors can, amongst other things, make outreach campuses less profitable.

I’m seeking some more information on UC’s proposals and will write about them later.

The union wrote to the chancellor last week saying that it believes the decision is primarily an “academic matter” as per section 182(2) (a) of the Education Act 1989 and thus a matter for the council to decide, rather than university management.

Dr Ryan says that there have been several similar instances where a management decision to close a course has been overruled by a council after the council ruled that the decision was an academic matter rather than a management one.

“We are requesting that the matter be put before the council,” said Dr Ryan. “And, until the council makes a decision no action should be taken to discontinue delivery of the primary teaching programme from the Ruawharo site in the Hawkes Bay.”

The background material  is quite interesting.  In Sep 2007 there was a stoush between then Massey VC Judith Kinnear and the Council over the closure of an engineering programme in Wellington (covered in NZ Education Review 21/9/07). The VC planned to close it, arguing that it was her decision, but the Council decided to reconsider it. Of course, the VC and Chancellor have moved on since then and delegations may well have changed.

The other reference is a 1999 High Court case taken by the AUS (the TEU’s predecessor) against the University of Waikato (reference is CP.12/99 I think). The 42 pages boils down to a decision that a restructuring of faculties was deemed unlawful because it was not referred to the academic board (after reading all 42 pages, I wish it said more!). The academic board was deemed to have a role in advising Council on academic matters, regardless of the VC’s own power. Now that decision depended in part on the terms of reference set by the University of Waikato Council, but also on the provisions in the Education Act.

Looking at the cases put forward by the TEU, I’d say that they have a reasonable argument, but it obviously has to be considered against the full facts in this Massey case. The TEI is basically arguing in their reference above to the Education Act 1989 that the academic board should have advised the Council on this programme closure and that, in the absence of such consideration, the Council should reconsider the closure. I haven’t yet seen any evidence that the matter has (or has not) been considered by the academic board at Massey. If it does go back to the Council, I hope they look into the treatment of students recruited for this year when closure was actively being considered.

1. Go to WelTec, Not VUW WelTec has swooped in to encourage students turned away from VUW because of closed enrolments to do an engineering degree with WelTec.
2. Teachers’ Council Revolts …against new teachers with poor literacy, although the Council’s Director notes that the problem is not acute and offers no evidence of the problem. The University of Waikato helpfully points out that they are OK, as are the other universities.
3. KAREN Grows Network AUT’s radio telescope at Warkworth has been connected to KAREN, a step along the way to the Square Kilometre Array. Karen is also expanding to Taranaki, which will support WITT.
4. Tertiary High School MIT’s Tertiary High School is to be opened by Education Minister Anne Tolley on Friday.
5. University of Otago It’s one of those high-news days, so Otago University is:
   • reviewing its printing department;
   • has had a positive reaction to its campus master plan (main Otago website on campus plan here), under which it will need 50% more spaceover the next 25 years – you can see some images of the plans at this Channel 9 story;
   • might upgrade the Water of Leith, which runs through the campus, from a drainage ditch to a more natural form;
   • might address the student “ghetto” around the university, in partnership with the City Council;
6. ODT on Science The ODT has written an editorial on science funding, criticising the government a bit, but mainly bemoaning long-term trends of under-investment in science.
7. Massey Gondola Could Work …according to the promoters, but everyone else seems to think pigs might fly first, including me. I covered the gondola proposal from Palmerston North to Massey University yesterday.