• 3 Unitec Rick Ede 79,611
• 4 Waiariki Poly Pim Borren 77,360
• 7 Wananga o Aotearoa Bentham Ohia 73,347
• 27 Waikato Uni Vice Chancellor Roy Crawford 39,872
• 30 Tai Poutini Polytechnic Paul Wilson 36,508
• 32 Teachers Council Peter Lind 36,015
• 35 Otago University David Skegg 33,843
• 36 North Tec (Northland Polytechnic) Terry Barnett 32,404
• 41 Aoraki Polytech Benjamin Lee, Catherine Nelson 28,847
• 43 Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) Mark Flowers 27,021
• 48 Open Polytechnic Dr Caroline Seelig, Paul Grimwood 24,175
• 49 University of Canterbury Dr Rod Carr (Vice-Chancellor) from Feb 09 23,819
• 55 Manukau Institute of Technology Dr Peter Brothers 21,329
• 57 Wellington Institute of Technology Linda Sissons 20,389
• 62 Tertiary Education Commission Dr Roy Sharp 17,987
• 69 Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Tony Gray 15,242
• 71 FORST – Foundation for Research Science and Technology Barry Hayman 13,711
• 77 Christchurch Polytechnic Inst of Tech Neil Barns, Darren Mitchell 11,012
• 80 New Zealand Vice Chancellors’ Committee Penny Fenwick 10,331
• 82 New Zealand Council for Educational Research Robyn Baker 9,946
• 83 Western Institute of Technology Richard Handley 8,912
• 84 Massey University Vice Chancellor Steve Maharey 8,805
• 88 Telford Rural Polytechnic Jonathan Walmisley 7,922
• 96 New Zealand Qualifications Authority Dr Karen Poutasi 1,885

I’d expect that a lot of the spending is for travel, and a bunch will be for entertainment, but neither surprises me as most of the people on the list are heavily involved in developing business relationships in NZ and offshore.

Many readers will think that NZQA sets university entrance standards (in consultation with universities of course) and they will be both right and wrong. S257 of the Education Act 1989 gives NZQA the power to set university entrance standards for those aged under 20. Universities set entrance standards for other students and the NZVCC has a good overview of the issues.

Of course, with capped funding and high demand, NZQA”s threshold is becoming increasingly meaningless. Universities are having to ration places even for those who meet NZQA”s standard – Auckland, Otago, VUW and Massey have all put in place measures to limit access to university.

So where is the government in all this? Education Act requirements were put in place on the basis that access to university was a national decision, but this is being undermined with little formal response from Ministers. Now I recognise that the government has decided to limit funding (and I’m not unhappy with that choice), but they have been largely absent from discussion on the implications of that funding restriction. It’s easy to understand why Steven Joyce hasn’t wanted to front service restrictions, but when a prominent national myth like open access to universities is involved, it does leave an opening for the Opposition (Grant Robertson is likely to exploit that for Labour).

To be fair, the government has initiated a review of university entrance via NZQA, but the horse has bolted in the interim with universities setting their own entry standards in response to excess demand. More recently, TEC has also gotten in on the act by publishing the following investment guidance for universities two weeks ago.

In a low-growth funding system, the needs of groups targeted in the TES must be prioritised. The expectation is that universities will prioritise younger learners where decisions are made in relation to managing enrolments but not at the expense of older learners from less represented groups (Māori and Pacific peoples in particular).

The text is really quite important, because it gives universities a clear signal about who should be prioritised (and that it should be on age and ethnicity) but it does it through a back-door quasi-regulatory method. Universities are not formally bound by it (yet) but will be expected to factor it into their plans. I think, given the importance of the issue, it would be better to front-foot such an initiative. Another wrinkle to all this is whether universities would be acting legally by preferencing younger over older students – they could give preference to under-represented groups legally, but young people are not under-represented in tertiary education.

I want to emphasise that I’m not necessarily against the TEC approach. It expands upon a TES theme for having more younger graduates and it is also evidence-backed – younger people tend to study full-time and complete their quals at a better rate than older students, and have an income premium over less qualified people for longer. My view is simply that the whole issue of university entrance deserves a larger, and co-ordinated, debate, even though events are forcing immediate responses on agencies and TEOs. Some of the questions worth investigating are listed below.

1. Should access be restricted?
2. If access is restricted, should it be done on age, academic performance, whether a person comes from an under-represented group or some other factor?
3. If access is effectively regulated by individual universities, what scrutiny should they face over their choices?

1. Residence for Study This is a chunky Dominion Post story. NZVCC Chair Derek McCormack is calling for foreign student graduates to automatically get residency. Steven Joyce said no, but then said that he wanted to review the allocation and coordination of international education promotion money. There’s a shorter version on The Press’ website.
2. Uni or Dole? Secondary principals are pleading for unis to take more students so that secondary school leavers don’t end up on the dole.
3. International or Domestic? Steven Joyce has refuted as “lazy logic” a claim that international students are taking places at the expense of domestic students.
4. Lower Admissions NZUSA has put out a release about admissions limits at universities, and so has Maryan Street of Labour - both are quoted in stories above. The Press has written, poorly, an editorial about why selective admissions should be welcomed at universities – it could do with some editing to improve the flow.
5. Indian Institute Indian institute the Rayat Bahra group was in town recently to look for opportunities.
6. Canterbury PR Wins The University of Canterbury has won a PR award for the work its inhouse team did for the successful sale of its $50m of philanthropic bonds last year.
7. Wintec RPL Wintec is getting into RPL. There’s a Waikato Times story here, or you can check out their specialist website at www.elevate.ac.nz. They seem to be charging $25/credit and collecting SAC subsidies on top of that (Presumably they are, anyway, as they’re charging international students $65/credit).
8. NorthTec’s Council As I mentioned in a post yesterday, NorthTec has made two more appointments to its Council.
9. Dunedin Pub The Gardens Tavern (the Gardies), a favourite student haunt,  is closing soon and its closing night is causing a few headaches as people from near and far come to celebrate.
10. Pay Envy The State Services Commission will now be publishing pay details for CEOs, in bands, for all Crown entities now, not just core departments and TEIs – that means that NZQA, TEC and other agencies will have pay over $100,000 reported.

This post by Derek McCormack,

It’s no secret that the government is facing difficult financial times and the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee (NZVCC) acknowledges that tough choices are needed in this year’s budget.  Indeed, universities have been making hard choices for some time now, as we work to deliver more value for money and continue to drive efficiency in our institutions, while protecting our research and research-led teaching strengths. 

University teaching and research are vital to New Zealand’s economic growth.  While we don’t expect this week’s budget to contain the level of investment needed to maximise our contribution to economic growth, we are somewhat heartened by the work the government has been doing to reduce costs around the margins and free up funds to recycle back into the sector, and look forward to hearing more about these initiatives in Thursday’s budget announcement. 

We are also encouraged by the government’s announcement last week that the budget will prioritise research, science and technology through $225 million of new spending. 

Universities are the most important research organisations in New Zealand.  We have over half the country’s research staff, have the bulk of its fundamental research capability and train nearly all its postgraduate students – the researchers and professionals of the future.  In addition, universities are at the forefront of commercialising research results.

As key players in the science and innovation system we welcome the additional funding for new initiatives to encourage links between companies and publicly-funded research organisations, promote technology transfer, support mid-career researchers and attract top science entrepreneurial talent to New Zealand.

In the Prime Minister’s speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday, he stated that “knowledge drives prosperity.” We will continue to encourage the government to lift its investment in universities to a level that allows us to fully contribute to this goal.  We will work with the government, industry and others to make sure New Zealanders enjoy the full benefits – cultural, social and economic – from this investment.

Capital investment in infrastructure like hospitals, schools and roads will not pay off without parallel investment in human capital.  Graduates from our universities staff our hospitals, schools, farms, research facilities and creative sectors, to name a few.

Every New Zealander benefits from investment in our universities.

1. Vic’s Enrolment Shutdown Unsurprisingly, yesterday’s media was dominated by VUW’s decision to stop taking enrolments for the rest of 2010.
   • NZUSA said that the doors of opportunity had been slammed shut twice on students, at VUW and Otago (which put on enrolment caps on some courses), but pointed the finger mainly at a lack of Government investment.
   • TEU said that the government needs to open the door to students.
   • Gareth Hughes of the Greens lambasts the government, mainly for not planning for a baby blip flowing through to enrolments – funnily enough I thought enrolment pressures were mainly due to the recession.
   • Labour’s Maryan Street says that it’s the end of aspirations for a smart economy.
   • The Young Nationals are calling for enrolment caps to be lifted, by allowing universities to charge what they want, rather than being constrained by fee maxima;
   • NZPA brings together all the perspectives, with Steven Joyce dropping some hints of new places in the Budget. And an updated NZPA story has comment from the Maori Tertiary Students’ Association.
   • The Dominion Post brings in all the usual views, plus Business NZ, which is calling for a review of interest free loans - and has a dig at the value of sport science courses.
   • TVNZ had a 3 minute piece with comment by Pat Walsh (VUW VC), Derek McCormack (AUT & NZVCC Chair) and Steve Joyce plus a student locked out by VUW (who is apparently a Labour Party activist, but didn’t make any overt political attacks). TV3 had a 2 minute story covering much the same issues with Walsh, Joyce and NZUSA’s David Do.
   • RadioLIVE’s Marcus Lush had Pat Walsh and Steve Joyce on for a 9 minute story yesterday morning.
   • Radio NZ’s Checkpoint had a background story (3 min) and an interview with Steven Joyce (5 min).
     • In the background story, Derek McCormack said (at about 2 min): ”Everyone’s chocked right up at 103 or just over, and it’s very hard to accurately keep to that. There’s all sorts of imponderables and difficulties in tracking enrolments exactly and so there is no margin for error.” Well, yes, quite – if you took your enrolments over the limit last year, as 5/8 universities did, then it will be hard to keep them under this year, unless you actually…try to limit the enrolments that you are completely free to accept or not.
     • Even better than that quote was Mary Wilson of Radio NZ questioning Steven Joyce (about 1:30 in): “So middle-class parents and their students are simply going to have to live with these restrictions?” Because of course university is just a middle-class thing…
2. Budget Hints National is hinting at extra money for Youth Guarantee in the Budget. The main story highlights how our education spending/student in dollars on primary and secondary students is 21st or 23rd out of 28 countries, which is unsurprising, since we’re 25th by income.
3. Mining in National Parks This University of Waikato media release is an example of how to draw a very long bow – the intro suggests that there is an alternative to mining national parks, but its really about seeding clouds to increase water flow for hydro dams and irrigation (it’s dubbed “water mining”).
4. Lincoln-Telford Merger The Lincoln University and Telford Rural Polytechnic Councils will vote on a merger proposal by the end of the month, although the Minister will make the call in the end.
5. Student Causes A pro-life club has been allowed to affiliate to AUSA, after some silly rules were repealed, while OUSA will continue to oppose cannabis prohibition.
6. Agri-Food Massey University VC Steve Maharey is trying to position the Central North Island as the agri-food centre of the world.
7. Student Loans The Maxim Institute is calling for reform of student loans.

UniServices, the commercialisation arm of the University of Auckland, is hosting an event to promote university innovation and technology in the health sector on Tuesday 18 May. Six other New Zealand universities will be joining the University of Auckland at the event….Under this initiative, a series of similar events involving all eight New Zealand Universities will be held around the country over the next twelve months. Each event will focus on a specific theme such as biotechnology, energy, food and nutrition, ICT, education, design and creative arts and high tech manufacturing.

What impresses me most is that they are running this industry by industry, and involving all universities, so that they have the best prospect of linking relevant business and industry people. It ties in well with yesterday’s science announcements, which will have been no coincidence, but if the universities can kick on with this sort of coordinated initiative, then I have a lot more hope for universities’ contribution to economic development in NZ. For once the universities are not just saying that spending money on them will magically lead to growth but are doing something practical. Good on them.

By the way, if you want to read some voodoo economics about how university spending magically leads to growth, Universities Australia has just published a consultant’s report to that effect.